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THE SPIRIT OF MADISON 



TO TEAD. STEVENS & 00., GREETING 



Beloved: 

My mission is to remind you of many things upon whicb depend 
the future peace an I .prosperity of our beloveii country, and which 
you appear to have forgotten. The great principle which induced 
resistance to England's despotic rule 3'ou have forgotten ; and many 
things equally important and indispensable to the maintenance of our 
Federal relations and the perpetuity of the blessings of Representa- 
tive Republican Liberty you have forgotten. You have forgotten 
that we have a Constitution, and tlie buvim;/ obligations of your solemn 
oaths to protect and defend that sacred instrument ; you have forgotten 
that the Government, which you in part claim to represent, is a crea- 
ture of compact, and can only le^^itimately exercise the powers dele- 
gated for the purpose ol 'promoiinij justice, inswring domestic tran- 
quillity, and tlie coninion defence; for promoting the general vjelfare and 
securing the hUssings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. You have 
forgotten your own antecedents, and that the most prominent and 
radical of your party — yourselves inclusive — have clamorously advo- 
cated the constitutional right of secession — a doctrine which you now 
hypocritica.lhi affect to condemn and repudiate as treason to that Constitu- 
tion. You have forgotten that secession was begotten, nurtured, and 
matured under the fostering care of your New England fathers. You 
have forgotten that there was ever a Hartford Convention, and the trea- 
sonable object and policy of that Convention. You have forgotten that 
a constitutional law of Congress, recently enacted for the purpose of 
enforcing constitutional rights and guarantees, was virtually nullified. 
by New England laws (imposing heavy penalties and long and pain- 
ful imprisonments upon officers and private citizens aiding in its exe- 
cution) for no better reason than it encountered the crude notions of 
New England philanthropy. You have forgotten that you were the 
master-spirits — most active and busy — in promulgating the dangerous 
heresy that it was criminal to aid in the execution of a constitutional 
law which did violence to your tender consciences, and was in conflict 
with your notions of philanthro'py . The tender consciences of Radical 
Abolitionists! The phdanthropy of Congressional Radicals ! As the 
counterpart, I propo.^e the divinity of the Devil and the tender mercies 
of his Satanic Majesty. You will pardon this digression ; and if the 
decency and dignity of the devil has been unintentionally compro- 
mised by putting him in the category of Stevens <^ Co., I beg to be 



excused. Althougli in a land of spirits, I have neither been an inat- 
tentive or disinterested spectator to your doings. Your hypocritical 
professions and affected philanthropy ; your cry for general emanci- 
pation and universal enfranchisement, don't deceive me ; for I know 
that your Plymouth progenitors were affected devotees -at the shrine 
of Liberty — religious and civil ; and worshipped with a holy zeal, 
which could only find satiety in a monopoly of the favors of the 
Goddess of their idolatry — undivided and unrestricted liberty /or Puri- 
tans — but no participation in its enjoyment with any who did not 
unconditionally admit the infallibility of their dogmas and their 
divine right to regulate and control the actions and consciences of 
others. You know the history of their tyranny and persecutions ; 
and I know that you (their descendants) have inherited all the diaboli- 
cal vindictiveness of the monsters who civilized by chains and dungeons, 
and Christianized with fire and faggot. The data furnished by New 
England history abundantly proves that nothing short of absolute rule 
and monopoly can satisfy the demands of New England cupidity. Ava- 
rice is the master passion in New England, and sways and controls the 
affections and energies of the diminutive creatures who impiously 
claim the prerogative of directing and controlling the destiny of this 
great Nation. A few years ago New England traders and adventu- 
rers, under the auspices of companies and large capitalists, swarmed 
the coasts of Africa. What were they doing there ? Cruelly sever- 
ing the ties which bound husband and wife, parent and child, and 
friend and friend together ! Kuthlessly tearing from a beloved coun- 
try, which yielded spontaneously in exuberant abundance all that 
was necessary for the comfort and support of man, its innocent inhabit- 
ants, and transporting them more than 10,000 miles to a land of 
strangers, where they were forced to encounter a slavery more intolera- 
ble than death, and a degradation deeper, darker than perdition, and 
blacker than despair. 

From the most reliable data, it is estimated that at least one-third or 
one-half of these harmless victims of New England cupidity perished in 
t\\Q foetid dungeons and holes in which they were packed for transporta- 
tion. Is it not miraculous that any survived ? This was New England 
justice ! This was New England humanity ! and this the spirit of 
philanthropy which animated the degenerate souls of your New Eng- 
land fathers. What demon spirit, let me ask, governs, controls, and 
directs the degenerate offspring of that degenerate paternity ? We 
hare Scriptural evidence that devils enjoy the immunity of possessing 
the souls and controlling the desires, affections, and actions of their 
chosen ones.. Give me leave to say that in you I identify all the odious, 
malignant, and diabolical characteristics of your fathers so vividly, 
that I am almost induced to conclude that the transmission or transmi- 
gration of souls is no visionary theory ; and that the infernal spirits 
of your wicked progenitors are your instructors, allies, and advisers, 
and the authors of the wicked devices and expedients designed to 
consign to .slavery, misery, and degradation, the most enlightened 
and chivalrotls people that have existed in the tide of time. Ah ! but 
tbey are rebels 1 aud so were your puritanical fathers, with not the tithe 



8 

of their justification. Now, suffer me to remind you that the fathers of 
the. p'ojile who you now persecute laere the chamjnons and lieroes of the 
Revolution ; and that it was theii' armies, commanded by their generals, 
that led to Victory and to Freedom. Success crowned their efforts and 
sanctified their deeds ! The memorials of their patriotic sacrifices and 
services are immortal; and their names and deeds will be honored 
and sung as long as a human soul exists qualified to appreciate the 
blessings of Republican Freedom. Now, in my judgment, it is not 
just or right to approve or condemn, simply with reference to the suc- 
cess or failure of an adventure or undertaking : for success does not in- 
fallibly crown the patriotic efforts of the virtuous and the good; nor 
do the vicious always fail in the execution of their wicked purposes. 
The leaders and authors of an unsuccessful rebellion may have been 
the champions of a cause inseparably identified with the liberty, pros- 
perity, and future glory of their country. The causes which initiate 
and im})el rebellion are often pregnant with all that patriotism holds 
dear or that philanthropy should cherish. We should look, then, to 
the motive and provocation, and not to the adventitious circumstance 
of failure or success for justification or condemnation. Now, pursu- 
ing th 3 rule, permit me to contrast the provocation to our revolution 
with the causes and provocations which induced the late disastrous 
Southern rebellion. The provocation to our revolution was compara- 
tively a mere abstraction ; for the tax proposed to be levied upon tea 
was not onerous, and could not have sensibly affected the pecuniary 
interest of any one ; yet an attempt to establish the principle is uni- 
versally conceded to have justified the rebellion; and the culmination 
of that rebellion into a successful revolution has transmitted, covered 
with glory, the names of the illustrious heroes who participated in 
the glorious struggle. If the principles which formed the basis of 
the revolution were right then, they are right now ; and whether they 
were right or wrong, in no degree depended upon the failure or success 
of the rebellion. If taxation without representation was usurpation 
and tyranny then, it would be equally so now, and should imperatively 
demand the stern resistance of every lover of liberty in this and all 
civilized countries upon the globe. 

Now let us look into the causes and provocation to the late 
rebellion. I think it will be conceded that they do not consist 
of mere abstractions, but of usurpations, impositions, and exac- 
tions, unjust, oppressive, and grinding. Now, I assume that South- 
ern resistance to the onerous impositions of tariffs, enacted for 
the benefit and protection of New England manufactures, has since 
furnished the motive to New England opposition to every measure, 
policy, and institution in any way identified with the interest 
and prosperity of the South. So long as the South bore submissively 
and quietly the impositions and exactions of New England, there was 
neither dissonance to jar or asperity to divide ; but they were per- 
mitted to revolve undisturbed in the orbits allotted them by the Con- 
stitution, and to enjoy, without molestation or hindrance, the benefit 
of all Constitutional guarantees for the protection of their peculiar 
institutions. 



The South submitted quietly to the high duties imposed by the 
tariff of 1824, under the benign and fostering influence of which New 
England manufactories had multiplied and flourished to an extent far 
transcendmg the most extravagant anticipations of the most sanguine. 
This did not satisfy an avaricious craving which might seek satiety in 
yam in absolute monopoly. 

Next followed the tariff of 1828~the woollens bill, or (as it has 
been justly aud appropriately denominated) the Bill of Abominations ; 
and then the not less odious and onerous tariff of 1832. These to- 
gether broke the camel's back. The State of South Carolina resisted 
and nullified ; a compromise ensued, by the terms of which the tariff 
was to be gradi al y reduced until the maximum would not exceed 
twenty per cei t. This was designed a tariff' purely for revenue. 
Now the New England battery opened. The tender consciencies of 
New England philanthropists were suddenly illuminated, and the abom- 
inations and evils of Southern slavery, in all its hideous and appalling 
deformity, was suddenly revealed to their painfully excited imagina- 
tions ; aud wanting a pretext to attack and abolish the monster, they 
found it in the fictitious aud rediculous assumption that they were re- 
sponsible for its existence. Acting upon this silly hypothesis, they 
imprudently and impiously assumed that they were the chosen and 
commissioned agents of the Deity to extirpate and abolish the curse 
from the land. Societies {having for their object the aholitionof Soutlicrn 
slavery) were speedily organized and ramified throughout the New 
Ensfland States. Their emissaries and deluded tools were sent over 
the entire South to scatter, broadcast, incendiary newspapers, pamphlets, 
and periodicals, while their fanatical and hypocritical preachers and 
political demagogues were engaged in sowing the seed of discord 
throughout the land. They proclaimed everywhere that slavery must 
and should be abolished, regardless of the Constitutional guarantees 
for its security and protection; that there was a higher law than the 
Constitution; and that there was an irrepressible conflict between free 
labor and slave labor, and that it was impossible that they should 
co-exist. Here, then, was a regularh' organized crusade against South- 
ern slavery, having for its object the abolition and extinction of four 
thousand millions of dollars' worth of Southern property — an amount 
greatly exceeding the entire aggregate wealth of the New England 
States. This is something more than an abstraction. I will not dis- 
cuss the question as to the moral or natural right of man to hold prop- 
erty in man. It is enough f(jr me to know that shivery has existed 
and been sanctioned by Deity at all times, from the days of the Pa- 
triarchs down to the present period ; and that our father Abraham, 
" the friend r,f God.'' was not only a large slave-holder, but that his 
treatment of Ilagar and his own begotten was far from exemplary. 

Now, permit me to remind you that slavery existed long anterior 
to the formation of our Federal Union, and that Constitutional guaran- 
tees for its ])i'oteGtion and security were not only a condition precedent, 
but a sine qua non to the formation of that Union. The existence 
of African slavery is not only compatible with the spirit, genius, and 
letter ol' our Ecder;;! comj^act, but it is in strict accordance with the 



American acceptation of republican liberty ; for it was not only 
recognized by the fathers and parties to that compact, but our Consti- 
tution expresslv provides that the importation of such persons si lall not 
he prohibited by any law of Congress anterior to the year 1808; and, in 
fixing the basis of Federal representation, it was agreed that three-fifths 
of the whole numerical aggregate of African slaves should be enu- 
merated and included. And it is moreover declared by section 4, 
Article 2, of the Compact, " That no person held to service or labor 
in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another State, shall, 
inconsequence of any law or regulation therein, ha discharged from 
such service or labor, hut shall he delivered up upon the claim ot the party 
tOswhom such service is due." And here permit me to remind you, that 
during the whole time, comprehending an intermediate period of more 
than twenty years between the ratification and adoption of our Fede- 
ral Compact and the year 1808, that nothing was heard of the tender 
consciences of your New England fathers; for their motto then was, 
as yours is now, (in the chaste and refined language of Thad. Stevens,) 
"2h hell ivith a conscience which is not subservient to interest and party." 

Now, I maintain that Massachusetts and Connecticut are responsi- 
ble for all the evil which has resulted from that savage and brutal 
traffic in human flesh, which their liberty -loving demagogues and fanat- 
ics now hypocritically assume is the cause of all the misery which has 
since afflicted and divided our happy, united, and prosperous country • 
and that that odious section which legalized the African slave trade 
for twenty years would never have del'aced and disgraced our Consti- 
tution but for the influence and vote of New England. A reference 
to the history of the Convention will establish beyond cavil the truth 
of this assumption. The States represented in the Convention were 
twelve — six Southern, three Northern, and three Eastern. Now, it is 
known that Virginia and Delaware advocated an immediate interdiction 
of the traffic as equally in conflict with policy, republicanism, and 
humanity, and that they voted against it, and Massachusetts and one 
other New England State (I can't be positive whether it was Con- 
necticut or New Hampshire) voted for it. The aggregate affirmative 
and negative vote was seven and five. In favor of the clause there 
were four Southern, two New England, and one Northern State ; against 
it, two Southern, one New England, and two Northern. Now, Thad., 
it is manifest that your New England fathers held the balance of 
power ; and if they had cast their vote with Virginia and Delaware, that 
abominable and odious trade would have been discontinued, and 
our country would not have incurred the disgrace andencountered the 
disastrous and appalling results of its extension. Now, Thad., it is 
the opinion of the wise men and statesmen. North anil South, that, in- 
dependent of the great accession to the slave population durino- those 
privileged years, that a majority of the Southern States could and 
would have emancipated and colonized their slaves long ago. If this 
be true, who, I demand, is responsible for all the misery and povertv 
which has resulted from that diabolical traffic; and especially, wlio fs 
responsible for the ruinous and appalling results of the recent bloody 
conflict, and for the existence of that vindictive and malignant spirit 



which animates the tyrants whose iron rule is now crushing out every 
feeling allied to liberty, justice, and humanity? To enable you to 
decide whether the advocacy of this odious section was prompted by 
cupidity or philanthropy, I will simply refer you to the fact that, as long 
as kidnapping and importing African slaves was sanctioned by the 
Constitution, New England philanthropy was entirely subservient to 
New England avarice. As long as this savage and brutal traffic was 
constitutional, New England did not fail to secure the lion's share of 
the inhuman trade ; and as long as African slavery was profitable, the 
institution was not only cherished and defended by New England as 
strictly compatible with the law of morals and the requirements of hu- 
manity, but was propagated and ramified throughout every portion of 
the world to which New England commerce extended. Nor was Afri- 
can slavery abolished in New England until after New England cupidi- 
ty had been gratified by poeketing a full equivalent for its slave prop- 
erty. New England philanthropy! (as little John m. hotts says of State 
sovereignty,) " is truly a myth:" it lives in fable and deals'in fiction. 
I have given a few historical specimens and examples, pregnant with 
proof, that your New England fathers were cruel tyrants and base 
hypocrites ; and I will now prove that you, their degenerate sons, 
are a fiendish set of traitors, who would gladly immolate upon the 
altar of your unhallowed ambition the Constitution of our Union, with 
all its sacred guarantees for the protection and perpetuation of the 
blessings of republican liberty. A proof of your treasonable pur- 
poses is found in your personal and practical resistance to the fugitive 
slave law, designed to enforce the observance of rights guaranteed bv 
Article IV, Secticm 2, of the Constitution. South Carolina nullified 
laws believed to be palpably in conflict with the spirit of the Constitu- 
tion, but you have nullified laws vianifestly and palpably constitutional, 
and justify the treason upon the principle that there is a law of con- 
scienc3 paramount to the Constitution. 

If it be treason in South Carolina to nullify a law believed to be in 
conflict with the spirit of the compact, a fortiori, or for a much 
stronger reason is it treason to nullify a law conceded to be strictly 
consistent with the provisions of that instrument. If Calhoun, 
Hayne, and Jeff. Davis were traitors, how much greater traitors are 
Stevens, Sumner, Wilson k Co. To enumerate the instances m which 
you have wickedly, treasonably, and palpably violated the Constitu- 
tion, would be useless, and unprofitable to edification, for they are 
known to the intelligent and reading public, and any attempt to en- 
lighten your benighted followers (w.ho deem it treason to doubt your 
patriotism and political infallibility) would be superfluous. But to re- 
turn to your aggressions upon the South, It will be conceded that you 
had no constitutional right to interfere with slavery in tbe Southern 
States, and certainly no right to covenant for its extermination. It 
will not be contended that New England laws, virtually nullifying con- 
stitutional laws enacted by Congress for the purpose of enforcing con- 
stitutional guarantees for the protection" of slave property, were not a 
palpable infraction of the compact; nor will it be contended that your 
repeated infractions of that compact did not incite and justify Southern 



resistance. It is a legal maxim, admitting of no exception, that a 
voluntary infraction of a compact by oueparty will discharge the other 
party from all legal obligation to observe and keep it. As long as 
boasting and threats to exterminate four thousand millions of dollars 
worth of property, and to emancipate and enfranchise four millions of 
Southern negroes came from a meagre minority, which was believed 
impotent for mischief, the South was quiescent ; but when your wicked 
crusade against Southern institutions had culminated in the election 
of a sectional Abolition President, pledged to do the bidding of the par- 
ty which had elevated him to power, they were awakend to an appal- 
ling sense of their danger, and did everything that honor and patriotism 
could justify and wisdom suggest to avert the dreaded catastrophe. 
They asked a Congressional guarantee. They demanded that the 
wicked and treasonable crusade against their property and institutions 
should be staid. They solicited ; they remonstrated ; and in turn were 
scorned, derided, and laughed at. It was your purpose not to concili- 
ate, but to fire their resentment and inflame their fury ; that in the 
madness and phrenzy (which it was your purpose to provoke) they 
might furnish you a "^pretext for consummating your fiendish purpo.se 
by force of arms. And your crusade of vengeance and malignity 
finally provoked that resistance which you so much coveted. Such has 
been your conduct. You have created the passions you persecute ; 
you mark a people for injustice and oppression ; you covenant for an 
extermination of their property ; you load them with abuse and every 
species of vile execration ; you propose to reduce them to poverty, 
misery, and degradation. And when, by your vile acts and viler ag- 
gressions, they are goaded to resistance, they are denounced as " traitors 
and vile rebels;" as a set of "fiendish miscreants who are animated by a 
hellish purpose to destroy the best and purest Oovernment the tvorld ever 
saw." You unsettled their reasons, and now revile their insanity. You 
have driven them to the extremity that has produced the evils you ar- 
raign, and now threaten to punish the crime which you have provoked, 
and for vshich you are responsible, with universal confiscation and exile. 
Yes! you! who claim to be the only patriots in the land, the only 
champ^ions of Republican Liberty, and the *^nly defenders of the Con- 
stitution, provoked a rebellion that you might have a pretext for the con- 
summation of the treasonable purposes of your wicked crusade against 
civil rights and constitutional liberty. And this damnable purpose 
you hope to accomplish under the hypocritical guise of a false philan- 
thropy and afi'ected patriotism. Professing to be the only champions 
of Republican Liberty, the little mind and monstrous iniquity with 
which you have been endowed is now being exerted to establish a 
tyranny over our Southern brethren, compared with which the tyranny 
of the feudal system, in the darkest age of feudal barbarism, would be 
mercy fraught' with leniency and liberty. Professing to be the friends 
of Union and advocates for reconstruction, it is manifestly your policy 
and purpose not only to prevent reconstruction, but, if possible, to 
annihilate all State governments and to centraljze all power in an 
odious, despotic congressional oligarchy, in which American liberty 



1 

will iind a perpetual grave. And you not traitors ? traitors with a 
double aspect; Janus-faced and doubly dyed; traitors to your indivi- 
dual States, and traitors to the United States? 

Now, permit me to ask from what portion of the Constitution do 
you claim the exclusive immunity of prescribing the terms and con- 
ditions upon which the rebel States shall be readmitted into the Union ? 
What portion of the Constitution confers upon Congress the exclusive 
right to determine the existing status of the excluded States? And 
especially, what constitutional provision warrants the assumption that 
they no longer exist as States ; and that Congress alone has the 
right, not only to determine the conditions upon which they shall be 
reinvested w'ith their original attributes, but readmitted as constitu- 
tional integrals of our Union ? You will not contend that any such 
power is expressly delegated, nor that it is inferentially deducible 
from any power expressly conferred. Your assumption of right, then, 
is not only unwarranted by the Constitution, but is not deducible from 
any portion of it. You assume that the rebel States have been re- 
duced to the condition of Territories, and that Conarress has undivided 
rule and dominion over them, and can make any rule or regulation 
for their Government which its caprice or lust for power may suirgest. 
It is a trite adage, "that actions speak louder than words." Con- 
ceding this truth, give me leave to compare your hypocritical profes- 
sions with your acts, your fallacious and sophistical theory with your 
practice. You maintain that secession is unconditionally inadmissible ; 
that no State, or any number of States, have any constitutional right 
to withdraw from the Union; and that 'all attempts at secession are 
nugatory, null, and void. . Whether this be true or false, it is no part 
of my purpose to determine. It is yuur theory ; and if it be true, the 
corollary is, necessarily, that any ineffectual attempt to secede, forcibly 
or otherwise, can neither affect the status nor in any degree change :he 
Federal relations of such States with the Union. And if this be true, 
the conclusion infallibly follows that the excluded States have never 
been constitutionally out of the Union, Your policy has been marked 
by irreconcilable contrarities; for your practice either agrees or dis- 
agrees with your theory, as it may be in concord or conflict with your 
party designs. If it accords with your purpose that the States should 
be in the Union, of course they are in the Union. They are in the 
.Union as long as their co-operation is indispensable to the attainment 
of the ostensible purposes of radical abolitionists. They were States 
-to all intents and purposes, and constitutionally ; and, with your appro- 
bation, and at your invitation, exercised the highest prerogative of 
State sovereignty when our conrpact i&as to he amended and slavtry 
abolished. And they are now callt-d upon to aid in the consummation 
of your hellish purpose to disfranchise nineteen twentieths of the 
enlightened chivalry of the South, and to enfranchise three and a half 
millions of stupid, ignorant negroes. And as monstrous and prepos- 
terous as this demand is, their acquiescence is made a condition pre- 
cedent — a sine qua nan — {not to a readmishion to the Union.) but to your 
confidence and protection — "a protection which will be fraught with 
a similar security of that of the vulture to the lamb ! " You fiendish 



9 

and diabolical traitors! you base and degenerate liypocrites ! who pro- 
mulcrate creeds and schemes neither bred in your hearts or approved 
of by your iudgments. You whited sepulchres! and instruments and 
tools of the devil ; to contaminate all that is pure, and pollute all that 
is cjean ; to poison and embitter the sweet sources of liberty, and 
convert its, fountains into blood; when will cease your mortal enmity 
to Republican Liberty? when will cease your malignity against the 
authors of your independence and the contributors to your jjros'perity ; when 
will cease your revolting system of rapine and impiety ; and how long 
will you ccmtinue to show the savageness of your natures, by grinning 
over your prey and growling over the agonies of your unfortunate 
victims; and when will you abandon your hellish crusade against the . 
Constitution, and co-operate with your patriotic President to re-estab- 
lish our glorious Union upon the immortal and imperishable principles 
of wisdoui and justice? Excuse the digression. And now give me 
liberty to ask if yon have read the Constitution'? And if so, do you 
not know that it is an unconditional prerequisite to its amendment 
that three-fourths- of the Stat.es shall ratify ? And do you not agree 
with me that it is indispensable to the validity of that ratification that 
the ratifying States shall be in the Union? 

Now, "if the rebel States are not only out of the Union, but have 
been reduced to the ^iaius of dependent Territories, I affirm that the 
Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery is nugatory ; and I 
demand by what authority Congress requires them to meet in Conven- 
tion to ratify an amendment, the ratification of which is made a con- 
dition precedent not only to their existence as States, hut to their readmis- 
sion into the Union. I have before said that your whole course has been 
characterized by ridiculous absurdities, incongruities, and contrarieties ; 
and nothing can more forcibly illustrate the truth of the position than 
your ridiculous and treasonable attempt to make the Southern States^ 
tributary to your treacherous policy to deprive them r:^ suffrage ; that 
you may not only exclude them from all participation in the (iovern- 
ment, but transfer all power — political and civil— to their degraded 
negroes. You reduce them to Territorial dependeyice, and then prepos- 
terously demand, with more than mortal arrogance, that, as Southern 
States in the Union, they sliali seal their infamy and degradation by 
aiding you to forge the ohains and rivet the fetters with which you 
propose to manacle and bind them. Such are the sacrifices which 
you cruelly and arrogantly demand of the South 1 Sacrifices which 
comprehend eveiy nature, quality, and qualification which can either 
adorn or dignify "the character of man You impiously demand that 
that instinctive love of liberty implanted by the Deity in the heart of 
man ; that, and all the nicer feelings and sensibilizes of the human 
soul which characterize gentle and refined humanity, shall be extin- 
guished. You demand not only a voluntary surrender of Eepublican 
Liberty, but that it shall be freely immolated upon the altar of your 
treason. A free-offering upon the altar of treachery to the Constitxition, 
and the Union! And all this at the behest of a base set of traitors,, 
who seek to erect upon the ruins of our Federal Republic a dynasty 
more despotic than that erected by the Csesars upon the ruins of thft 



10 

Roman Republic. Now, give me leave to contrast your conduct and 
motives with the policy and practice of your New England fathers I 
Like them, you profess to be the champions of patriotism and Repub- 
lican Liberty, and the only patrons of piety and philanthropy. I have 
already referred to history to prove that their conduct and profession 
have universally been in conflict ; I have shown that their boasted 
patriotism has always been subservient to their lust for power; and 
nothing short of absolute rule could satisfy their demands. I have 
furnished historical data, conclusive of the fact, that their pretended 
piety was base hypocrisy, characterized by cruelties, proscriptions, 
and persecutions, unsurpassed in fiendish wickedness in the annals of 
time. In disproof of the existence of their affected philanthropy, I 
have referred to their active participation'in the African slave trade; 
and have demonstrated that avarice was their dominant and control- 
ling passion, and cupidity the actuating motive to their base, perfidi- 
ous, and degenerate souls. Now, permit me to refer to the diabolical 
and hypocritical pretensions upon which you base your claim to a 
monopoly of these great cardinal virtues ; and first, as to your affected 
veneration for the Constitution and patriotic love for the Union. 
Your love and veneration for the Constitution is forcibly exemplified 
by the following facts : First, you practically nullify the Fugitive Slave 
Law — a law enacted to enforce the observance of constitutional guar- 
antees, and admiited to he constitutional; and threatened, if an attempt 
should be made to enforce it, that you wotdd secede from the Union. 
Secondly : You have denominated it "a compact with death and a 
covenant with hell." Thirdly : You assume that ours is a grand Na- 
tional Consolidated Government, ignoring the fact that it is a crea- 
ture of compact, and can legitimately only exercise the powers dele- 
gated by the Constitution to the end, and for the objects and purposes 
enumerated. You not only repudiate the idea of State-rights, but you 
maintain that S^ate sovereignty is a ridiculous myth, and only has 
existence in the brains of simpletons ; and your recent legislation 
clearly indicates a purpose to m.ake Congress absolute ; for you not 
only "2y7'opose amendments'^'' to the Constitution, but annex conditions 
which makes it imperative upon the States to sanction or reject. You 
thus wickedly assume to exercise a power constitutional!}'- belonging 
to the States and the people of the States ; for, if you claim and exer- 
cise the power of annexing a condition precedent to the ratification or 
rejection of a proposed amendment, you manifestly have it in your 
power to insure either a ratification or rejection ; for it is obvious, if 
the proposed amendment is merely a deceitful feint, it is easy to insure 
its rejection by tacking on a condition which you know will be 
scouted. It is a gross insult to the Southern States to ask the ratifi- 
cation of " an amendment" which will destroy every vestige of Re- 
publican LiVjerty, and reduce them to absolute serfdom. 

Negro suffrage in the South is totally inadmissible, and you know it; 
but permit me to inquire from what portion of the Constitution do 
you derive the power, either expressly or inferentially, to regulate the 
sufi'rage qualification in any of the States North or South ? It is mani- 
fest that you palpably violate the Constitution, both in spirit and let- 



11 

ter, by attempting directly or indirectly to dictate to the States the 
terms" upon which they shall become members of the Union. But 
it is an interential concession, clearly deducible from the fact that the 
Southern States are invited to yartidpaie in an amendment, that they 
are in your estimation already in the Union. Why are they denied 
representation? Now let me remind you that the Constitution pro- 
vides " that representation and taxation shall be apportioned among 
the several States," &;c. In contravention of this provision of the Con- 
stitution, you claim the right to tax the States to which you deny 
representation, upon the pretext that they have been reduced to territo- 
rial dependence, and that " Congresss has the right to make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the Territories of the United States." 
Now, I will not debate the question whether Virginia is a State or Ter- 
ritory, but, simply demand : if a Territory, by what constitutional pro- 
vision can she claim the right to exercise the high prerogative with 
sovereign States in amending the Federal Constituton ? and if a Stale 
alien to the Union, with what propriety can she be invited to ratify 
proposed amendments to the organic laws of the United States ? But 
take either horn of the dilemma — whether a sovereign State or Territo- 
ry belonging to the United States — you have no right to tax her with- 
out giving her representation : for taxation with representation is not 
onlv ancillary to, but inseparable from, our republican institutions, and 
nothing can be more odious and intolerable in American appreciation 
than taxation without representation. Taxation with representation 
has been so completely ingrafted on, and identified with, the affisctions 
and sympathies of American patriots, that they are startled and 
alarmed to know that there are monsters so vile as to repudiate the 
great primeval incitement to our glorious Revolution. I will not at- 
tempt an enumeration of the instances in which you have flagrantly, 
palpably, and wickedly violated the Constitution ; for, as I have before 
said, it would prove unprofitable for edification ; nor will I attempt to 
delineate your purposes and object for ignoring that hitherto sacred 
instrument, for you profess to be governed by a law paramount to the 
Constitution; and it is manifest that Congress is in the full exercise 
of functions claimed as legitimate offsprings of this wicked assumption, 
and, if suffered to go on with her vile aggressions and usurpations, that 
she will monopolize all power— executive, legislative, and judicial — and 
establish upon the ruins of our Republic an odious oligarchy, com- 
posed of two or three hundred traitors and tyrants, self-invested with 
•absolute rule. 

So much for patriotism I Now your Christian piety ! You claim 
that New England is the nursery of civilization, literature, and re- 
ligion ; and you have been busy in promulgating the libel that neither 
religion or letters have, to any extent, enjoyed the patronage of the 
South ; and you have industriously promulgated this slander, until it 
has become the general sentiment of your ignorant, deluded people,, 
that there is neither virtue or intelligence outside of New England, 
and that the people of the South are destitute of both social and 
moral virtue. You have basely resorted to vile and dirty expedients 
to instigate and create a general feeling of hatred and malevolence 



12 

against the South and its institutions; for, in the exuberance of your 
malignity, you have represented its peoples as savage tyrants and de- 
mons, destitute of every sentiment in any degree allied to humanity, 
and in the haV)itual practice of perpetrating deeds of cruelty u{)on 
their poor African subjects, at the enormity of which stoicism stands 
appalled, stolidity swoons, and humanity stands aghast. This to you 
may appear a digression. But permit me to suggest, that neither 
genuine religion nor true, estimable magnaniniity will ever diverge 
from the course oi virtue, verity, and honor, for the base purpose of 
engendering and encouraging feelings of enmity and malignity; for 
malice has no place in the heart of the Christian, which is the peculiar 
residence of Charity and Love. Now, give me leave to remind you, 
that your practice is palpably in conflict with your teaching; that 
your hvpocritical external homage has no response from your deceitful 
wicked hearts. You teach that Mercy is the crowning attribute of 
Deity, and that God is love fraught with Charity, Your prayer is, 
"Forgive my trespasses as I forgive the trespass of others." "You 
ask that mercy shall be meted in the measure meted." You preach 
that it is the Christian's duty to love his enemies, anci to do justice and 
practice mercy. Do you love your enemies ? and do you forgive their 
trespasses ? Do you love justice and practice mercy ? Let your cruel 
and vindictive malignity and fiendish tyranny practiced towards your 
conquered enemies, the descendants of the patriots and heroes of our 
glorious Revolution, answer the questions. Do your preachers, who 
claim to be the followers of our meek and lowly Saviour, and the 
ministering agents of God's Holy Spirit, promulgate the truths of His 
Holy Bible, or do they desecrate the holy office to the vile purpose of 
promulgating political heresies, for the purpose of engendering strife, 
hate, and distrust? What should Christians think of clerical demons 
who wickedly profane their sacred office, and desecrate the pulpit to 
the hellish purpose of preaching political sermons designed ro add 
iuel to the fire which is now consuming every sentiment and feeling 
in any way allied to virtue and humanity ? And what should they 
think of the puritanical miscreants who incite and encourage discord 
and strife for the purpose of enabling them to consummate a damnable 
policy which involves the fate, and is fraught with destruction to the 
most stupendous monument of human wisdom {our Constitution) that 
the world ever saw ? Especially, what does every one who has a love 
for our institutions and a desire to transmit the blessings of peace, 
concord, and liberty to posterity, think of such political preachers ? 
They think that they are the heirs of Hell and the Devil's own 
children. If such be your religious teachers, may God in mercy de- 
fend their pupils from the demoralizing influence of their diabolical 
precepts ! From such apostacy, Good Lord, deliver them ! 

Now, give me leave to ask. How do graven images, made with 
hands, differ from the idols of your own sinful hearts ? How does 
the external worship of stocks and stones differ in turpitude from that 
enthusiastic veneration and love for money which universally charac- 
terize your New England Christians? How does the worship of visi- 
ble statues of marble differ from the invisible and unchastened afi:ec- 



13 

tions and unholy desires of the human heart ? Are you Christians ? 
or are you idolaters? AVhether are your devotions paid, to the 
alnii^dity dollar or the Almighty God? Do you serve God in spirit 
and m truth, or are vou joined to your idols? From such an idola- 
trous worship, Good^Lord deliver us ! So much for your religion. 
Now, a word in reference to your* philanthropy —New England phi- 
lanthropy ! It is a solecism in language, and exists only in fiction. 
Philanthropy is a Christian virtue, and comprehends many of the 
cardinal virtues ; for love to mankind implies charity and forbearance, 
mercy and forgiveness. He who loves will not only deal charitably 
with 'his fellow-man, but he will bear patiently with his infirmities; 
and he will not only practice mercy towards an enemy, but he wijl 
forget and foro-ive injuries. The conduct of the true philanthropist is 
always dictated by a love of justice fraught with mercy; and his 
benevolence and charity will always be co-extensive with his ability — 
physical and moral — to dispense good. 

Now, give me leave to refer to your history, and that of your New 
England fathers, to show to what extent your's and their conduct and 
polTcy has been dictated by a love of justice, or a desire to amelio- 
rate the condition of man. I have before referred to the vindictive 
and tyrannical proscriptions and persecutions practiced by your 
fathers, and furnished historical data conclusive of the fact that 
nothing short of absolute rule— civil and religious— could satisfy their 
lust for power ; and that the aggregate wealth of worlds could not 
glut their rapacity or satisfy their avarice. It is just so with you, 
their descendants. Your greed for plunder is insatiable ; and if, by 
magic, you could convert mountains into precious minerals and their 
rocks into emeralds, there would still be a void in your rapacious maws, 
and, like the insatiable horse-leech, you would still cry, Give! give! 
Africa furnished an ample field for "a display of the benevolence of 
your fathers, and their philanthropy was strikingly manifested in the 
appalling cruelties practiced towards the wretched victims of their 
rapacity. They, to gratify the cravings of avarice, enslaved Africans; 
and you, to satiate a lust for power, which knows no satiety, now seek, 
by fiiendish and treasonable usurpations, to reduce to a condition of 
slavery and degradation, far below feudal vassalage, the most chival- 
rous and enlightened people that inhabits the globe ; and you not 
only threaten general confiscation and exile, but that the country and 
homes of the noble descendents of the patriots and heroes of that 
Kevolution which gave Liberty to New England shall be bestowed 
upon the descendents of the African slaves which your degenerate 
fathers kidnapped and imported ; and, that there may be no barri(^r 
to the consummation of this hell-engendered purpose, you are now 
resorting to every treasonable pretext which your hell-fraught souls 
can concoct to destroy the constitutional eflSciency of the Executive 
and Judicial Departments of the Government; and this you propose 
to accomplish by invalidating the constitutional adjudications of the 
Supreme Court by treasonable and unconstitutional legislation, and 
by impeaching and removing from office your gifted, honest, and 
patriotic President. 



u 

Impeach the President! Thad., the idea is so superlatively ridicu- 
lous that I am amazed that your snakish sagacity has not realized the 
fact that your vile plot not only contains the principle of its 
defeat but vividly portrays the treasonable spirit which animates the 
traitors who have covenanted for the overthi'ow of republican liberty. 
You say that tiie President is a traitor. Now, Triad., I will not stultify 
myself by attempting to show that, with your knowledge of the history 
of Mr. Johnson, you know the charge to be false and malicious, but 
simply demand the evidence of his treason. Now give me leave to 
ask if any act or omission of his, anterior to the rebellion, during its 
existence, or since its termination, warrants the assumption that his 
obligation to defend tht; Constitution has ever been violated, or that he 
has ever entertained or fostered an aspiration not strictly idAjntified 
with the interest and glory of his country ? Who has said or done 
more to expose the fallacy and danger of the doctrine of secession 
than Mr. Johnson ? By whose patriotic exertions was Tennessee saved 
and restored to the Union ? Mr. Johnson's! His services and sacri- 
fices during the war, the suffering and privations encountered and en- 
dured in the defence of the country and its institutions, are matters of 
history, known and rehearsed by every boy ot fifteen years of common 
intelligence. This is a record in part of Mr. Johnson's doings. Now, 
Thad., where is the record of your patriotic deeds? What dangers 
have you encountered, or privations endured, in defence of your 
country ? Your courage, like Fallstaff's, oozes out in times of danger. 
We heard nothing of your martial spirit during the rebellion. We 
had no proofs of your patriotism when the battle raged, and no evi- 
dence that you were ever in the vicinity of a hostile camp, except the 
buggy and horse abandoned for a more expeditious transportation 
by steam from the neighborhood " of villainous saltpetre." Like 
Prince Hal's " bag of guta,'^ in the tragedy, you prefer to hack your 
blade in your hiding place to doing it in the conflict of arms. He 
stabbed the dead Hotspur in the thigh as a proof of his heroism — as 
a proof of courage and daring. You assail a fallen and defeated enemy 
who are asking quarters ; and threaten death and destruction to a 
people, unarmed and defenceless, because they resist treasonable legis- 
lation designed to reduce them to slavery and serfdom. These you 
propose to make the victims of your prowess and courage. Courage I — 
your courage ! Courage is a cardinal and Christian virtue ; it is the 
essence of genuine magnanimity ; it is the iahulum vita of true, en- 
nobling heroism ; it is the corner stone of Charity, Mercy, and, indeed, 
all the Christian graces; it is ancillary to, and inseparable from, honesty, 
justice, and humanity ; it is inseparably blended with all that is great 
in the aspirations of the virtuous and noble ; it is majestic from its 
mercy ; it succors and assists the unfortunate, and never tramples upon 
the feelings and rights of a conquered or fallen enemy. If this be 
true, Thad., you are a base coward; a roaring bull in front, but in 
heart a deer — a wolf in a lion's skin ! Your bestial supremacy will not 
be questioned in the congressional menagerie ; and none will doubt 
your wolfish propensities who have witnessed your growling over the 
bleeding victims of your cruel rapacity. Your courage! — it is the 



16 

courage of the grinning fox over the helpless and innocent lamb; of 
the raveno us vulture tearing the vitals of the harmless dove! True 
courage can never harmonize with the base constituents of your craven 
soul, for you are an anomalous monster in human form, without a 
single element which enters into the composition of a man. It is my 
deliberate and honest opinion that, if all the diabolical ingredients 
constituting hell and its inhabitants could be consolidated, the monster 
compounded could not be more destitute of mercy, charity, and all 
Christian graces than Thad. Stevens. Pardon this digression, Thad. 
And now give me leave to ask if the President has done anything 
which has not, at s<me time, had your approval, and which has not 
been necessary and indispensable for a compliance with your demands 
and exactions ? 

You demanded of the Southern States, as a condition precedent to 
readmission of her members to Congress, that they should ratify an 
amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery in the United States. 
For the consumn-iation of this purpose a State organization was an in- 
dispensable prerequisite ; for it could only be done through State 
legislatures, and only by legislatures of States in the Union ; for the 
Constitution expressly provides that there can be no valid amendment 
without the ratification of three-fourths of the States in the Union, or 
three-fourths of the legislatures of the said States. You next require 
that there shall be a repudiation of the public debt. This could only 
be done by States or by their legislatures. It is, therefore, manifest 
that a compliance with this requisition rendered a complete State 
organization necessary. This has been done and has had your approv- 
al. You next require that all State laws prescribing different penal- 
ties for similar offences by the different races shall be repealed, and 
that laws should be enacted providing for the equal protection of civil 
and municipal rights, without regard to color. To effect this it was 
necessary that there should be a complete political and constitutional 
organization of the State government, comprehending all of the de- 
partments — legislative, executive, and judicial. That requisition has 
been complied with. And, now, you further demand that there shall 
be a perfect equality of political right, and that none shall exercise the 
right to vote who has had any participation with the Southern rebel- 
lion, or who has entertained any sympathy with the Southern cause. 
This you propose to accomplish by an amendment to the Constitution; 
and this proposed amendment has been already submitted to the legisla- 
tures of the Southern States for ratification, aud yet you have the im- 
pudence and effrontery to contend that the Southern States are not only 
alien to the Union, but that they have forfeited all right to exist as 
States, and have been reduced to colonial dependence. Your condit- 
ions for the readmission of Southern representatives have been so 
multiplied and enlarged, and so often changed and varied, and are so 
extravagant and preposterous, that it is manifest that your demands 
ar^ mere feints and vile expedients to enable you to postpone indefi- 
nitelely the object which you hypocritically profess to be so anxious 
to consummate ; for it is palpable that you are opposed to Union and 
reconstruction, and would prefer civil war, with all of its appalling 



16 

incidents, to the readmission of Southern reiiresentatives to Congress ; 
for, in the event of a civil conflict, yon not only expect to retain vour 
power, but achieve the object of your treasons by extinguishing every 
vestige of American freedom and establishing a congressional despoL- 
ism. In the event of the readmission of the loyal and patriotic 
representatives of the Southern States, you know that your crusade 
against Kepublican Liberty will be checked, and this is\he secret of 
your policy, and fully explains the motive which prompts you to assail 
with such savage bitterness our honest and patriotic President; for he 
is the lion in your path, and you know that he will defend and protect, 
with patriotic courage and devotion, not only our Constitution, "but the 
Union, and with it the benefits and blessings of civil and religious 
liberty. Now, to my sense, I have fully demonstrated that there has 
been no step towards the reconstruction of the Union which has not 
had your approval, and which was not manifestly necessary for a com- 
pliance wit.h your demands and exactions. In wh;it, then, has Mr. 
Johnson offended ? Is it an offence to assert that the Southern States 
are members of the Federal Union, when your whole course of legisla- 
tion not only proves that in 3'our estimation thev are in the Union, 
but in full possession of all the powers and attributes requisite for the 
exercise of the highest prerogative of State sovereignty ? Now, the 
dift'orence between you and the President is, that he is a patriot and 
honest, and you are a traitor and a knuve. The President maintains 
that the future interest, ])rosperity, and glory of our country depends 
upon Union, and that all of the States are m the Union, and that the 
loyal represerddtives of the Southern States should be admitted to seats 
in Congress. Is this treason? If not, will you please to specify an 
act or omission of his which has the least squintin;.; tov/ards treason ? 
Is it treasonable in a President to veto unconstitutional bills passed by 
a venal Congress, designed to elicit the co-operation of the Exiecative 
in its treasonable crusade against the Government, the Constitution, 
and Republican Liberty ? 1/ that he treason, I pronounce Mr. Johnson 
a base and vile traitor, recreant to every principle of duty, honor, and 
patriotism, and his conduct in this respect has been so flagrant, and 
the offence so often repear.ed, that he richly merits the Lynch and 
should be hung without judge or jury. I repeat the question, in what 
has the President offended? Is it treason that he repudiates a wicked 
and treasonable policy which taxes the free white people North and 
South to the enormous sum of twelve or fifteen millions annually (and 
which you would willingly augment to fifty millions) to pamper thou- 
sands of myrmidons of your choice, by bestowing upon them, rich 
sinecures, together with immunities, by the exercise of which they 
have already plundered the Government of five times that amount? 
Is it treason that he opposes a policy, the object of which is to support 
a million of negroes in idleness, and proposes and advocates a plan bj 
which they will be able to support themselves, which will create a 
mutual dependence between the races of the South, and lead to har- 
mony, peace, and prosperity? Again, I repeat, in what has he 
offended? Is it an offence against the Constitution that he has not 
fully exercised the duties of the treaty-making power delegated to him 



IT 

and the Senate, when that Senate not only obstinately ami treasonably 
refuses to concur in measures necessary for the retoration of peace and 
•unity, but threatens to convict him for treason and remove him from. 
ofRoe for proposing a plan for reconciliation which happens to be in 
conflict with its venal designs? But, you ask. is the House of Eepre- 
.sentatives to be excluded from all participation? I do, and saj em- 
phatically, that an attempt by the House to co-operate with the Senate 
is not only a wicked assumption of power not delegated ; but when I 
refer to the motive which is the inducement to that assumption, I unhesita- 
tingly pronounce it constructive treason. And this is my postulate, that 
matters of disngreement between belligerents can only be adjusted 
through that agency appointed by the Coustitution to make and con- 
clude treaties. It will be conceded that the parties to the recent bloody 
conflict were, in a nationtd sense of the term, belligerents, and if so, 
Mr. Johnson has done nothing which is not strictly warranted by the 
Constitution. Now, give me leave to remind you that they were not 
only recognized as belligerents by the great powers of Europe in amity 
with the United States, and acknowledging the binding obligation of 
our neutrality laws, but that they were acknowledged and treated as 
belligerents by the Government of the United States, and honored with 
an invitation to treat with a commission comjjosed of the heads of the 
Government, viz: The President of the United States, his Secretary, 
Mr. Seward, and others high in position and authority. Now give me 
leave to remind you that Mr Lincoln, upon certain specified conditions, 
proposed to repossess the States in rebellion with their original con- 
stitutional immunities; and that he strongly urged the members of the 
Virginia Legislature to assemble for the purpose of devising prelimi- 
nary measures necessary ior the restoration of that State to the exercise 
of her rights in the Union. Now, it will be conceded that Mr. John- 
son has plenary poAver to do all or anything which could have been 
constitutionality done by Mr. Lincoln. The opportunity to propose 
terms of capitulation or surrender hns passed ; and the question now 
is, how are the unsettled difficulties between these late belligerents to 
be settled and adjusted ? 

The notion that the States latel}'- in rebellion have been reduced to 
provincial dependence, is, to my sense, the ne plus ultra of nonsense ; 
and your acts prove conclusively that you do not, and never have 
bt-lieved it. That I will not so far stultify myself as to attempt to 
illumine your obtuse perceptions, further than to remind you that 
recently you have readmitted the Representatives of one of the rebel 
States to their seats in Congress, and that, hereafter, it will be entitled 
to a full constitutional representation in both houses. Then Tennes- 
see, whether in or out the Union, was to all intents and purposes a 
State. I consider that it is established, beyond cavil or contradiction, 
that your assertion that the States have been reduced to colonial 
dependencies is not only fallacious, but that you know it to be so ! 
The States, then, are either in ihe Union, or they are States or Na- 
tions alien or foreign to the Union ; and, if in the Union, their " citi- 
z-n^, are e^ititkd. to all tlie priuilcrj.-s cm I imynun'ties of the citizens of the 
several States,'^ aud of course to a fall ropreseatatioa in Conoreas 
2 ' 



18 

unconditionally ; for it is clear that States in the Union, in regard to 
constitutional immunities, are upon a perfect equality ; and if so, Mr. 
Johnson's recognizing them as States in the Union and demanding for 
them a constitutional representation in Congress, is not only not trea- 
son, but an honest and patriotic duty, which, as Executive Magistrate 
of this great Federal Kepublic, he is bound to perform under the sacred 
obligation of his oath of office. Now, if the States are alien to the 
Union, or foreign to the United States, of course neither their interest 
nor liberty can be afiected by Congressional legislation, nor can any 
thing be done touching their rights as alien or foreign nations except 
through the intervention of negotiation or the treaty-making power; 
and, if this be the existing stahis of the States formerly in rebellion, 
it is manifest that they are as independent of the Uniied States Con- 
gress as any nation on the globe ; and, if this be true, it is clear that 
the President, with the concurrence of the Senate, has plenary power 
and exclusive authority to adjust and settle any matters of difierence 
or disagreement by treaty. Now, I ask if matters are to remain in 
statu quo for no better reason than that a corrupt Senate has contuma- 
ciously denied its co-operation and concurrence, and prostituted its 
functions to the service of traitors, and to the base purpose of aiding 
a treasonable House of Representatives, through the instrumentality 
of its Star-chamber Committee, under the control of that base old 
traitor, Thad. Stevens, to defeat his efforts to restore the Union and 
the country to its former prosperity and glory? Is it expected that 
Mr. Johnson will sit quietly while these enemies to Republican Liber- 
ty are perfecting a damnable plot which contemplates and involves 
the destruction of the most stupendous monument of wisdom 
and patriotism that the world ever caw ? Is it expected that be will 
not make an eftbrt to perform his executive duties, when an omission 
to do so involves the ruin of his country ? Is the President of the 
United States to sit supinely indifterent, and behold the demolition of 
the Temple of American Liberty by a set of base conspirators who have 
wickedly covenanted to erect upon its ruins a temple dedicated to Des- 
potism and Baal ? Is it expected that he will adopt a policy of non-re- 
sistance, when the Constitution, which he is sworn to preserve, protect, 
and defend, is about to be made the victim of the treasons which a wicked 
Congress, recreant to every principle of duty, honor, and patriotism, are 
concocting for its destruction, and with it the last hope of popular 
government and Republican Liberty ? But, again and again, I repeat 
the question. In what has Mr. Johnson offemied? What has he done, 
or omitted to do, which has the least squinting towards treason ? You 
say he is a traitor. I demand the evidence upon which the charge is 
preferred ; and alBrm that you have not, will not, can not, and dare 
not specify the fads upon which you hypocritically base the accusation. 
The truth is that his patriotic virtues aud services are his treasons. 
His unflinching determination to protect and defend the Constitution 
against your usurpations and a:j;gressions is his treason. His patriotic 
avowal that, if necessary to defeat your treas-onable designs, he would 
sacrifice himself upon the altar of his country's liberty, is his treason. 
That be refuses to be converted into the treasonable tool of the enemies 



IP 

of his country, and give to them the power and infiaence of the Execu- 
tive office, to enable them to sacrifice the Constitution and Republican 
Liberty, is his treason. Again, I ask, In wha^; has Mr. Johnson of- 
fended ? and demand of you to designate a single act or omission which 
justifies the charge of treason. Cannot you specify one act? If you 
cannot, have the magnanimity to acknowledge that the hue and cry 
against the President has been raised for the purpose of diverting the 
public attention from your own wicked, treasonable designs, and that 
the true cause of your rancor and bitter animosity is that you can 
neither bribe or bully him into a co-operation with you for the vile 
purpose of consigning to slavery and degradation our Southern 
brethren, by transferring all political power to the ignorant descend- 
ants of the poor Africans, which your degenerate and hypocritical pro- 
genilors hidnapped and imported. Tell your constituents, frankly and 
honestly, that the cause of your bitter malevolence is. that the love of 
Republican Liberty with our patriotic President is so paramount and 
predominant that he cannot be induced to prostitute the prerogatives 
of his office to the treasonable and damnable purpose of overthrowing 
the liberties of his country. Tell them that his only oft'cnce is, that .' 
he don't yield with servility and pliancy to the treasonable demands 
of Wendell Phillips, Thad. Stevens, Sumner, and Forney, and their 
tools, who ha,ve conspired and covenanted for the overthrow of our 
Government and the extermination of Republican Institutions. And 
tell them that four such unmitigated villains and hell-engendered 
tyrants and traitors could not be found if the regions of Pluto were 
sacked ; and that their equals in base infamy and vile hypocrisy have 
not existed upon ou,r earth from the days of Adam down to the pres- 
ent period. And if they deny the truth of your report, ask them to 
contrast your acts with your professions. And tell them that, pro- 
fessing to be the advocates and champions of negro equality and uni- 
versal enfranchisement, you ejected Fred. Douglass and Ben. An- 
derson from your Philadelphia and Pittsburg Conventions, for no 
other reason than they were a little crossed with the negro, and not 
exactly of your color. And tell them that the worthy individuals 
ejected, in point of intelligence and integrity, iare eqaa^, if not superior, 
to any vjhii'i ma-^ in your Convention ; and that they not only demeaned 
themselves with decencv an I di:j;nity, bur,, for veracity and honesty, 
were superior to either of th3 greit men who pre-sidad over your de- 
liberations, and would ba scmd ili/^ed and degraied by a comparison 
with Ben. Butler, {of silver-plate and, spnon notoriety,) who ruled and 
directed the actions of those Conventions. And ask, if such men as 
Ben. and Fred, ware refused a participation in your conventional de- 
liberations, with what justice or consistency can you demand that 
universal negro suffrage shall be a condition precedent to the exercise 
by the Southern States of their constitutional rights in the Union? 
And tell them that the demand for negro suffrage, as a condition pre- 
cedent to the readmission of Southern representatives to seats in Con- 
gress, is a base trick, designed to exclude them forever. And tell them 
that, professing to be in favor of the Union and reoonstruotion, yonr 
efforts are directed to keep the States asunder, if you cannot succeed in 



20 

concentrating all power — legislative, executive, and judicial — in Con- 
gress; and that, in that Cf>ntingency, it is your purpose and })()]icy to 
establish the most tyrannical and odious of all governments : an abso- 
lute oligarchy, composed of mamj traitors and tyrants, self-invested 
with plenary power to rule and direct the destinies of our count y. 
And if they shall doubt that such is your purpose, direct their attention 
to tlte treasonable expedients to which you are resorting for the purpo.«e 
of destroying the constitutional efficiency of the Executive and Judicial 
Departments of the Government. Direct their attention to the fact(ihat 
for the purpose of nullifying the Presidential veto, which is the oidy 
security for the exercise of his constitutional prerogatives, and the only 
shield that protects the Constitution from congressional usurpation and 
encroachment) that you have resorted to bass frauds and wicked 
devices which are not only degrading toj'our high positions, but j>laces 
the blot of infamy upon the brow of every vile traitor who voted for 
the expulsion of Senators for the purpose of conferring upon this Eadi- 
cal Congress unrestricted power to annihilate every barrier to their. 
despotic rule ; for it is manifest that, uncontrolled by the Executive 
, veto, a venal Congress, composed of traitors, can not only paralyze the 
powers, but can legislate the other departments useless. 

It is hardly necessary to refer to the wicked and degrading expe- 
dients to which you have resorted to hoodwmk your credulous and 
deluded constituents, and to engender feelings of distrust and bitterness 
against our patriotic President and the people of the South. You 
affect to be in a perfect rage with Mr, Johnson for having exercised 
his constitutional prerogative in pardoning Southern rebels. And yoit 
threaten to invalidate liis pardons, and punish witli death and confiscation 
every individual who participated in the late rebellion. Will you have 
the candor to inform your constituents that the 2d section of the 2d 
article of the Constituiion conifers exclusive and ohsoluie j ower on the 
President "to grant reprieves and ipardons for all ajfences a gainst the 
United States, except in cases of impetichrnent ;" and that any inter- 
ference upon the part of Congress to prevent its exercise or render its , 
efficiency nugatory involves two high offences a;ainst the laws and 
Constitution of the United States, viz., -jierjury aid const i tic tire treason: 
for you swear positively not only to protect and defend the Constitu- 
tion, but inferentiully not to hinder or obstruct either of the. co ordinate 
departments in the exercise of the powers delegated to either ; lor it is 
indispensable to the maintenance and perpetuity of I-Jepublican 
Liberty that each department should be strictly confined to the orbit 
allotted it by the Constitution, and the genius of our institutions im- 
peratively demands that neither shall usurp or encreach upon the con- 
stitutional prerogatives of the other. You propose to confiscate the ■ 
property of rebels without regard to the Presidential amnesty and 
pardons; and this you propose to do by legislation ; for, having a ma- 
jority which will override all vetoes, there can be no Executive inter- 
position to check or tontrol congressional aggressii>ns and usurpations. 
Now, the pardons granted by the President are either valid or nuga- 
tory, and if valid, tlie penalty specified by the Constituiion being in- 
cident to the offence, is merged in the pardon ; for incidents fulluw 



21 ■ 

principles and pnrtnke of their nature or condition. If the princi- 
ple is abrogatei its incidents are necessarily extinct; for a pardon 
without a ri inission of the penalty is at best a ridiculous legal solecism. 
Now give me leave to ask if it b.i constitutional to inflict the penalty 
b(jfore conviction? And if conviction is not an indispensable legal 
prerequisite to the infliction of the punis^iment? and if so, can prop- 
erty be constitutionally confiscated until after the offender is convicted 
of treason? The 3d section of the 3d article of the Constitution pro- 
vides "that no person shall be convicted of trea-on unless on the testi- 
mony of two witnesses to the same overt act," &c. And article 5 of 
the amendment to the Constitution declares " that no person shall be 
held to answer for a capital or other infamous crime unless on the pre- 
sentment or indictment of a grand jury, or be det)rived of l^fe, liberty, 
or pr-qy;rti/ v/ithout due process of law;" and article 6th provides 
" that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right of 
trial by an impartial jury," &c.; and article 3, section 3, declares "that 
no attainder of treason shall work c irruption of blood, or forfeiture, ex- 
cept (luring the life of th. person ailainioiy There can, therefore, he no 
forfeiture loithout attainder; no attainder, but by the verdict of an im- 
partial jury, preceded' by the presentment or indictment of a grand 
jury; and no cjnviction except on the evidence of two witnesses to 
the same overt act. These are the provisions of that Constitution which 
you have sworn "to pre-erv?, protect, and defend." You will doubt- 
less have the courtesy ami liberality to concede that treason is an 
offence against the United States, and that the individuals actively par- 
ticipant in the late Confederate rebellion were guilty of treason ; and 
if so, and it is the constitutional prerogative of the Executive Magis- 
trate to grant reprieves and pardons/or all offences against the United 
States (impeachment excepted,) why is it tliat you assume to doubt 
the validity of the pardons already granted ? And, especially, where 
is your constitutional warrant for invalidatinc^ and abro<j;atin? those 
reprieves and pardons, and hanging, and confiscating the property of 
the supposed offenders ? If might gives ri^hc, and you have the power 
to nullity the constitutional acts of the President by the treasonable 
legislation of a venal Congress, why not accomplish at once your ulti- 
mate aim, and immolate the Constitution upon the altar of your un- 
hallowsd ambition ? When you destroy the efficiency of the Execu- 
tive you destroy the Executive ; for an Executive shorn of its consti- 
tutional prerogatives is a political non-entity. And when the Execu- 
tive ceases to exist t he Constitution perishes ; for, having no protection, 
Congress becomes absolute. Eor what piotection is a poor judiciary 
without sword or purse? Ponder this well, ye dupes of these vile 
traitors 1 Facts are stubborn things ; they speak the language of truth, 
and furnish just such evidence as cannot be misconstrued or mis- 
represented. 

Ti-iC facts herein specified furnish data conclusive that it is the de- 
sign of the leaders of the radical party to destroy the executive and 
judicial departments of this Government, and to concentrate all power 
in Congress, with no countervailing check to its aggressions and 
usurpations ; and that there may be no impediment to the consumma- 



22 

tion of this stupendous treason, they have a packed Senate of traitors 
organized for the purpose of conviclin<j our President of high crimes 
in office, \v'hose only offence is an avowal of his purpose to preserve, 
protect, and defend the Cons^titution against the usurpations of congres- 
^'ional traitors. I repeat, that he is the lion in the path of your vile 
conspirators, and the only power which can preserve and defend tb'e 
Constitution. Now give me leave to inquire if you are not reckoning 
without the host, to enable you to accomplish your wicked purpose, 
so pregnant with destruction to the future peace and prosperity of our 
afflicted country: And let me inquire if you can take any step 
towards the accomplishment of your diabolical purpose, even with the 
present Congress organized and constructed to cnrry into effect your 
hellish plot against the Constitution and American liberty? Your 
Congress contains but a little more than two-thirds of the aggregate 
representation. Now, will it be contended that this body, so imper- 
fectly organized, has any shadow of constitutional right to impeach 
and try the President? Now, I maintain that if the Southern States 
are in the Union, even constructively, that their representatives are 
entitled to seats in Congress, with no conditions save such as are 
prescribed by the Constitution. And if they are excluded for the 
reason that they may hinder or impede your treasonable plot to over- 
throw the Government, it will not only be the prerogative of the 
President, but his imperative duty, to resist by all the constitutional 
means which he has power to direct or control, any attempt upon the 
part of Congress to either destroy his constitutional efficiency, or in 
any degree to impair or endanger constitutional guarantees for the 
protection and defence of Republican Liberty. Now give me leave to 
suggest that all you have done, all that you are doing, and all that 
you propose to do, indicates a purpose to consolidate our Government 
by concentrating in Congress all power — legislative, executive and 
judicial. If this be your purpose — and that it is there is no diversity 
or contrariety of opinion among the intelligent and well informed — I 
unhesitatingly and unequivocally pronounce you a vile set of traitors, 
meriting summarily the intlictiou of that punishment prescribed for 
treason" for, if practical secession be treason, why is not practical con- 
solidation treason ? And if Southern secessionists be traitors, why are 
not Northern cousolidationists more odious traitors, and consolidation 
the greater treason ? Liberty may survive secession, but in consolida- 
tion it will find a perpetual grave. The States disintegrated may enjoy 
republican liberty superlatively, and the immunity of entering into a 
new compact and forming a more perfect union ; but in the vortex of 
consolidation the States perish, and with them all hope of a resuscita- 
tion of republican institutions ; for, once interred in the deep, dark 
grave of centralism, there will be no possibility of a resurrection. 
But you have been promulgating, through your mouthpieces, that our 
Government has already been consolidated; and Little John minor 
bocts has a quotation from a letter of General Washington, under the 
date of 17th September, 1787, which he thinks proves it. I intend to 
relv "pon the Constiiution, and from that instrument I hope to show 
couclusively that this is not only not a cousolidated Governoieut, but 



'Is ' 

that it was not the design of the sages and authors of our compact of 
Union to impair in any degree ihe sovereignty of the individual States 
composing it. The expression of " we the people of the United States," 
in the preamble to the Constitution, is quoted and relied upon to prove 
that t/urs is the government of the aggregate people of the United 
States. It is sufficient for my purpose, that the preamble is no part of 
the Constitution, and that it proves nothing, and that your construc- 
tion of the preamble is in conflict with the whole body of that instru- 
ment. The expression of " we the people." &c., is ambiguous ; and if 
you will refer to the first article of the Constitution of the old Con- 
federation, you wdl find a solution for the difficulty ; for the first article 
provides that the style of this Confederacy "shall be Ihe Unittd States 
of AmericaJ^ Who then composed the Convention that framed our 
Constitution? Delegates from the confederated States; or, using the 
style of the confederacy, " from the United States of America." Now, 
you know that each confederate State was represented by separate 
delegations in that Convention ; you see then that " the United States" 
and States united are convertible terms, and mean exactly the same 
thing; and if so, are not the terms of, we the people of the United 
States, and we the people of the States united, equally convertible ? 
And is it not a matter of fact, that the people of the States united 
were represented by separate and distinct State delegations in that 
Convention; and if so, is not the expression of we the people of the 
United States satisfied, by the words which speak the language of truth, 
in proclaiming that lue the people of the States united, " in order to form 
a more perfect Union ? " I have said, and I now reaf&rm, that by 
entering into the compact of Union, that the sovereignty of the indi- 
vidual States was unimpaired, and that no portion of it was conferred 
upon the General Government; ; nor does that Government possess a 
single element of sovereignty ; nor a single feature of nationality ; 
and that it is precisely what the framers of the Constitution designed 
to make it : a pure representative federal republic, having no indept.nd- 
ent original or inherent power, and bound to confine its operations 
strictly within the limits prescribed by the Constitution, and to exer- 
cise only the powers expressly delegated, and such incidental powers 
as are absolutely necessary to their constitutional efficiency. A dele- 
gated sovereignty is a solecism in language — a political impossibility. 
Sovereignty is not transmissible or transferable. The potentates of 
our earth claim the right to govern by the Grace of God, as jure 
divino, conferred by Jehovah. The maxim of all despots is, therefore, 
that all power abides in the Crown, and that all grace and favors 
emanates from the Crown. The maxim of popular government is, 
that all temporal sovereignty is inherent in the people, and that all 
power must emanate from the people. The maxim of our Govern- 
ment and all Confederations of Sovereign Eepublican States is, that 
all sovereignty abides in the States and the people of the several 
States; but your mouth-piece — Little joJtn ra, botts — assures you that 
the power to declare war is a sovereign power, and that that power 
liaving been delega'.ed to Congress, therefore Congress is a sovereign ; for 
Congress has the power to declare war. 



u 



*..<» 



Give me leave to inquire why this power is any more sovereign than 
any other power delegated by the Constitution ? and from wlience has 
this two hundred pounds of little man derived this idea ? Is it a de- 
duction from the fact that it is the prerogative of the King of Eng- 
land to declare war? If so, permit me to remind you and him that 
the power of the Monarch of England, anterior to the Revolution, 
was absolute ; and that it was the maxim of his despotic Government 
that all j)ower is inherent in, and abides in the Crown ; and that all 
grace and favor emanates from the Crown. Now, it is the maxim of 
all Republics that the people are the source of power ; that all power 
abide with them, and must emanate f:om them ; and that their Repre 
sentatives are their servants and agents and amenable to them. Arjtnts 
and servants sovereigns ! invested with sovereign power ! It is an anoma 
lous monstrosity, which could generate only in the crazy bnain of the 
addlepated /o/iu in. hotts. Now, give me leave to remind you that the 
political rights enjoyed by English subjects consists of concessions 
coerced from the Crown ; and that the rights and powers not conceded 
were retained by the King; and the powers retained are sovereign 
powers; and amongst the retained prerogatives are the Veto and the 
power to declare war. In England, these are sovereign powers. The 
Veto Power was retained for the purpose of protecting the reserved 
prerogatives of the Crown against further encroachment by Parlia- 
ment. In England it is a sovereign power for two reasons : it existed 
in a despotic or absolute Monarch anterior to the existence of Magna 
Charia and Bill of Rights, and ivas not conced-d; the other is, that it 
is absolute. The Veto is never exercised in England for the reason 
that Parliament has never encroached upon the Monarclts reserved jirerog- 
aiives. The power to declare war is for the same reasons a sovereign 
power ; for it is one of the powers retained ; and is absolute and un- 
conditional. Now, I presume that it will not be contended that your 
Executive Veto is a sovereign power; for it is neither absolute nor 
supreme, and has been proven to be altogether inefficient for the pur- 
poses for which it was designed ; for our venal Congress now wields 
a power which overrides the Veto. I repeat that a d< legated sover- 
eignty is not only a solecism in language, but conveys an idea totally 
incompatible with all Representative Governments, and is in conflict 
with tDe spirit and genius of Republican freedom. It is hardly ne- 
cessary that I should spend time or multiply arguments to prove that 
a delegated power can by no possibilty, or in any contingency, be 
converted into a sovereign power, or to produce any additional evi- 
dence to that furnished by his Baltimore speech, and his ridiculous 
behavior in the Radical Convention at Philadelphia, to prove that 
John m. hotts is a ripe subject for the Lunatic Asylum ; and that, if he 
is suftertd to go at large, he should be honored with a negro cohort, to' 
keep him from doing mischief — especially to unprotected women and 
children. It will not be contended that the Congress of the Co^d'edera- 
iion was a National Government, or that the powers conferred by the 
Constitution were sovereign powers ; lor the second article of the Con- 
stitution declares that " each State retains its sovereignty and inde- 
peudeuce, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, wiiich is not by 



25 

this Confederation expref^shj delegated to the United States in Congress 
assembled." Now, there is a man fe>^t distinction between sovn-dgrdy 
and inde/>endence, and the powers and rights delegated; and it is evi- 
dent that the framers of the Constitution designed to make that dis- 
tinction ; for the declaration is "that each State retains its sovereignty 
and independence." Now, sovereignty and independence are politi- 
cal correlatives — for independence is sovereignty, and sovereignty is 
independence — and they are indivisible ; they must co-exist, or cease 
to exist. It is, therefore, clear that powers and rights were delegated, 
a}id not sovereignly and independence ; and this distinction is warranted 
by the grammatical construction of the sentence. Now, the powers 
delegated to the United States in Congress assembled were powers to 
declare war and make peace, &c. It will be conceded that this was not 
a sovereign power, and that the delegabd right to exercise it did not 
convert the agents and servants of the Confederated States into sover- 
eigns ; and, if so, let me ask upon what rational postulate can it be 
asserted that it has become sovereign under the operations of ihe pro- 
visions of your Constilution ? The Congress of the Confederation 
was composed of servants or representatives appointed by the States 
to perform certain duties and exercise certain delegated powers for 
the purposes indicated by the Constitution. The Confederate Con- 
gress was a Convention of the servants and agents of the States ; and 
what is your Congress but "a meeting of the ^States,''^ through and by 
their agents and servants, to whom certain designated powers are 
delegated to be exercised with a view to a consummation of the objects 
specified in your Constitution? Now, give me leave to inquire what 
was the purpose of the patriots who framed your Constitution ? In 
the language of the preamble, it was to form a more perfect Union ! 
A more perfect Union of what? The Slates then vnited under the 
Government of the Confederation. Yours is, then, manifestly a Union 
of sovereign States. Your Government represents a Confederation of 
sovereign States. Your Constitution is the creature of compact; and 
your Congress a creature of the Constilution, and bound by tverj 
obligation of honor and patriotism as the Kepresentative of the States 
to preserve, protect, and defend from violation and usurpation that 
hitherto revered and sacred instrument. Your Government only differs 
from that of the Confederation in that the powers and duties of the 
latter were vested in, and performed by, a Congress; whereas, the 
powers and duties of yours is administered, or intended to be ad- 
ministered by three separate, independent, co ordinate departments — 
intended by t'.e sage and patriotic framers of your Constitution as 
mutual and reciprocal checks agail^st usurpations and aggressions 
upon the rights of the States and the Federal compact — hence the 
Executive Veto, the right and power to impeach, and the judicial 
prerogative to nulify unconstitutional laws. AVhile I am inclined to 
admit that this division of power, and a strict administration of the 
Government in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitu- 
tion, would almost insure ihe perpetuity of the Union, I totally repu- 
diate the idea that it at all affects or changes the Federal relation of 
the States, aud maintain that your present Union, in all its phases, is 



26 

as strictly Confederate in its political organization as that of the Old 
Coniederatiou. The powers delegated to the two Congress.-.'s are 
almost identical, with two exceptions, viz : Your Congress has the 
power to lay and collect taxes, duties, impost, and excise ; and the 
Congress of the Confederation enjoyed the constitutional immunity of 
issuing bills upon the credit of the Government — a power not only 
not conferred upon your Congress, but withheld. 

The additional powers delegated to your Government is not so much 
an auguraentatioii of the powers of the Confederate Government as a 
change rendered necessary for the purpose of giving efficacy to those 
that were vested in it be/ore. For instance, the power to raise revenue 
by requisition made upon the individual States had proved ineffectual, 
for the reason that there was no process whereby payment could bo 
coerced. To obviate this difficulty, power was delegated to our General 
Government to la}-- and collect taxes /rom the individuals of the States. 
It is evident that the power of taxation in theory existed as perfectly 
in the Congress of the Confederation as it was in your Congress ; and 
the only difference is, that the former taxed States, and the latter indi- 
viduals. There is, therefore, no theoretic difference but in- practice. 
The power in your Congress is effectual, and in the Congress of the 
Confederacy it was inefficient. I repeat again, and again, that our 
General Government does not possess an element of sovereignty ; not 
so fast, say advocates of the opposite doctrine. How will you explain 
the 6th article of the Constitution ? viz : " This Constitution, and the 
Laws of the of tlie United States vjhicJi shall be made in pursuance 
thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority 
of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land." All powers 
possessed by the General Government are derivative ; and no derived 
power can be a sovereign power, simply because that from which it 
eminates must be higher than that derived, and that sovereign powers 
are primary, independent, and absolute. Supreme, taken in the sense 
in which it was intended, is the conelative of paramount; for all laws 
made in pursuance of the powers delegated must of necessity be para- 
mount to conflicting laws enacted by the legislatures of the individual 
States, for the reason that the Constitution is a compact by which the 
individual States are solemnly and reciprocally bound not to exercise 
powers delegated to their agents and servants in the General Govern- 
ment, to be exercised for the purpose of effecting objects connected 
■with the general good. By a reference to the nature of the powers 
delegated, it will be manifest that they are such as could not be 
exercised by the individual States without interrupting that harmony 
so essential, if not indispensable, to the general interest and tranquility. 
It is sufficient to say, that the individual States having, by compact, 
reciprocally covenanted that certain specified powers shall only be 
exercised by their representatives and servants in a General Government, 
any conflicting legislation by the individual States will be a vio- 
lation of the compact, and an unwarranted reassumption of power 
delegated. The true solution of the difficulty is, that no State has a 
right to exercise a power which, by a solemn compact with her sister 
States, has been delegated to a special agent to be exercised for the general 



27 

good. It is obvious tbat our General Governmet has an unconditional 
right, in conform iiy with the provisions and limitations of the Gonstitutwn, 
to exercise all 'powers delegated, and to make all laws necessary and proper 
to carry them into effect. And it is equally obvious that the parties to 
the compact conferring these powers can legitimately exercise no power 
to prevent or impede the exercise of the powers delegated ; and that 
all laws made with that view will be null and void. The laws enacted 
by Congress in pursuance of the Constitution, and in the exercise of the 
powers delegated, are paramount to all conflicting laws, and all acts and 
resolutions adopted by the individual States lor the purpose of invali- 
dating such laws, or to forestall the exercise of the powers delegated, 
are in violation of the compact, and of course void. The validity of 
the laws of the General Government, then, depends upon a strict adher- 
ence to the poivers delegated by the co7istitutional comjjact between the States. 
Are these sovereign powers ? Again, again, and again I repeat, that 
a delegated power can in no contingency become a sovereign power, 
and that our General Government does not possess a single attribute of 
sovereignty ; and that it is emphatically a Government of confederated 
States without a scintilla of nationality. And here give me leave to re- 
mark, that when I was an inhabitant of your lower world, in the city of 
Kichmond, and one of the selected delegates to the Convention of 1788, 
assembled to take into consideration the plan of the Federal Government 
proposed by its sage and patriotic framers, that in that Convention I used 
the following language in a speech in reply to the immortal Patrick 
Henry, of Virginia, (in whose eloquent and brilliant speeches was lumi- 
nously and vividly foreshadowed the evils which he prophesied would 
be brought upon the country by a wicked assumption of powers which 
it was no part of the purpose of the Convention to delegate, but 
which he said the Constitution would furnish a pretext to base and 
wicked and ambitious rnen to usurp for their individual aggrandise- 
ment. At that time, I viewed his fine flights of oratory as florid rant, 
and his solemn warnings as the senseless ravings of a fanatic. I now 
believe that he was the selected agent of the Deity to forewarn us of 
the dangers which have since fallen upon the country, and the more 
appalling dangers which are now menacing our free institutions and 
bids fair to engulf this glorious Union in the yawning abyss of con- 
solidation and despotism. On the occasion referred to, I said : " The 
principal question is, whether this be a Federal Government ? I con- 
ceive myself that it is of a mixed nature. In some respects it is a 
Government of a Federal nature; in others, it is of a consolidated 
nature. I say, notwithstanding what the honorable gentleman has 
alleged, that this Government is not completely consolidated, nor is 
it entirely Federal." This was my opinion in 1788 ; but, after I had 
studied the Constitution more thoroughly, I not only changed my 
opinion, but came to the conclusion that nothing could be more falla- 
cious and no argument more sophistical than that I had used to sup- 
port it. It was true, as I said, that the people were the parties to the 
compact ; but not the aggregate people of the United States, nor as 
the people composing one great body ; but as the people composing 
hirtecn distinct and independent sovereignties. Who were the parties to 



28 

the compact? The States by their Representatives. "Who ratified 
the coriipact? The States by their separate State Conventions. 
And who has the power to amend or alter the compact ? The 
States either throut^h their State Legishitures. or by a Con- 
vention of the different States. Now, if the Representatives of 
the several States framed the Constitution ; and if it was adopted 
and ratified by Conventions of then^tates severally: and if it can 
only be amende i and altered by the States; who can doubt that it is 
the creature of the States, and therefore a pure Representative Fede- 
ral Republic? But, sav these consolidationists, it is only Federal in 
part. It is Federal in the Congressional Senate; for, in the Senate, 
the States have an equal numerical representation appointed bv their- 
State Legislatures ; and this without reference to the inequality of 
population ; but that the Ref)resentatives of tiie lower house and the 
Executive Magistrate of the United States are elected by numerical 
majorities of the people, and that therefore the House of Rt^presenta- 
tives and the Executive Magistrate are the organs and Representa- 
tives of a Nation, and not of the Confederated States of America. It 
is true that the Members in the House of Representatives are elected 
by numerical majorities, but it is the majority of the people compos- 
ing each district entitled to a Representative; and each Sti^te being 
entitled to a numerical representation in the Conirressional House of 
Representatives in the ratio of its population, and each State being 
divided into districts, it ibllows that each Representative not only 
represents his particular district, but the aggregate number of Repre- 
sentatives represent the State in which thev are elected. The Repre- 
sentatives elected from the State of New York represent the State of 
New York, and are the servants and agents of the people of New 
York, and amenable to their constituents ; and so of all the States in 
the Union. Give me leave to say, then, th it, to my sense, the States 
severally have as distinct a representation in the Congressional House 
of Representatives, as the States individually have in the Senate; and 
that the only difference is, that in the Senate they have an equal 
numerical representation without reference to the inequality of popu- 
lation, and in the House of Representatives in the ratio of their popu- 
lations. In either, and both houses, their representatii)n is purely and 
strictly Federal. So far, then, it is manifest that, in ou- General Gov- 
ernment, there is not the least squinting towards consolidation, or the 
slightest shade of nationality. If the mode of electing is to deter- 
mine the representative character of the offieer, it will be easy to 
demonstrate that the President of the United States is not a National 
but a Federal Representative; that he is not the Representative of a 
Nation, but of States Confederated. Give me leave to remind you 
that the Constitution prescribes two modes, by either of which the 
Chief Executive of the United States may be elected. One by the 
electors of the several /Slates — the other, bi/ the several States. In the 
former, each State is entitled to a number of electors equal to the 
number of the Senators and Representatives to which ike Spates may 
be entitled in Congress. These electors vott' in their respective Sta'es, 
and transmit the vote sealed to the seat of Goverument, directed to the 



29 

President of the Senate. The person having' a majority of the whole 
number of tlie electors will be President; but, if no person shall have 
received sucli majority, then, in that contingency, the President must 
be elected i// iSlaO'S — tach State having one vote. Now, give me leave 
to say that, from the above data, the only logical deduction is, that, in 
both cases, the .election is by States, and not by the aggregate people 
of the United States; lor, if by the whole people in their aggregate 
capacity, then the majority of the electors would represent the ma- 
jority of the people of the United States; and this we know is not 
true ; for they not only may represent a minority of the popular vote 
of the United States, but cases may occur iu which they might not 
represent one-third of the whole people. 

For example, suppose the aggregate pofjuJar majority of the States 
(represented by the smallest possible majority of the electoral vote) to 
be a few hundred only, and the aggregate popular vote of the States, 
represented by the minority vote of the election, to be unanimous or 
nearly so, in that contingency (which 1 acknowledge to be remote) the 
President would not only not be elected by a majority of the popular 
vote, but by a minority, which would not greatly exceed the one-fourth 
of the whole number. I hope that, having demonstrated that the Presi- 
dent is not elected by the aggregate people cf the United States, 
it'will be conceded that he is not a national representative; and give 
me leave to say that a diflerent conclusion will encounter and involve 
this incongruity ; that a President elected by one mode would be 
National, and by the other a Federal representative, which is preposter- 
ous. It is manifest that in both or either case he ^s elected by States, 
but with this diversity : that in one case he may be elected by a ma- 
jority of electors representing a minority or' the States, and a minority 
of the population; but in the other he must be elected by a majority 
of the States. In either event he is strictly a Federal and not a Na- 
tional representative. This Government is so palpably a pure repre- 
sentative Federal Uepublic, I am forced to conclude that none but 
traitors to Pepublican Liberty, and who contemplate its overthrow, 
would even profess to believe it to be consoliilated. I therefore reiterate 
the char e that you are a vile set of t;'aitors, and that your usurpa- 
tions, professed principles, and avowed designs indicate a purpose to 
consolidate, by centralisir g all power in Thad. Stevens & Co. Now 
give me leave to say that every day furnishes additional evidence from 
your authorized and accredited tools and mouth-pieces that such is 
your purpose ; and if it cannot be accomplished by treasonable legisla- 
tion, it is to be consummated by exciting the people to rebel against 
all lawful authority, whether of individual States or of the General 
Government; and preliminary to perfecting your conspiracy against 
the States, that the President is to be removed, if not by impeachment, 
by any other wicked device which your depraved and diabolical hearts 
may concoct. Impeachment is the avoved expedient ; your more 
desperate intentions are secrets confined to the faithful. You know you 
must get r:d of this faithful sentinel, or your covenant to destroy the 
Constitution will be void. That fier^d and fanatic, Phillips, has pub- 
lished his plan, but his muddled brain failed to furnish a satisfactory 



solution of the remedy. But that aur^ust and illvstrioiis patron of virtue, 
piety, and Christian charity ; that model of political consistency and moral 
honesty ; and that great and glorious exemplar of military prowess and 
achievment ; that bloated and foeted mass of treason and corruption, 
distinguished by the cognomen of Beast Butler! has concocted a plan 
which he thinks iurnishes a solution for all the impediments to the 
decapitation of the noble and patriotic President. And here it follows 
in his own words : " How can the President be impeached ? Here it 
is ! The House of Representatives, under the Constitution, is the grand 
inquest of the Nation. Perhaps I might say, for illustration, the 
grand jury of the Nation. It prepares the bill of impeachment against 
the President, if it sees cause, and it presents the bill of impeachment 
to the Senate of the United States, which then becomes a hiofh court 
of impeachment, and the Chief Justice sits in that case as its presiding 
judge. It is thus no longer for that purpose the Senate of the Uni«-ed 
States, but is the high court of impeachment of the United States. 
What shall they do? When the impeachment is ready the Senate 
sends out its messenger or sergeant to bring in the criminal, be he high 
or low. [Applause.] (What a set of fools.) They set him at the bar 
and read the bill to him. If he plead guilty, they proceed to sentence 
him, which sentence is a deposition and deprivation of office. When 
he is brought before the bar, the Senate of the United States may order 
him to be imprisoned or to find bail, or any other proper order which 
the court might adopt in a criminal case. From that moment he ceases 
to be 'able to exercise the duties of his office until he is acquitted; and 
then comes the case of inability of the President of the United States to 
exercise the office of President. So the Vice President muss take the 
office, and there being no Vice President, it must devolve upon the Presi- 
dent of the Senate for the time being. [Applause.] (Those applauders 
are ripe for treason and slavery.) If I am correct in my statement of 
the law of impeachment and the form of trial, the right and form, if 
right, are clear ; and, therefore, if the trouble must come, xohich God for- 
bid, {what Jiypocrisy,) let it come in March, 1867, and not 1869. Let us 
have this thing done with ; let us settle this question at once and for- 
ever. If Baal be God, let us serve him ; if the Lord be God, let us 
serve Him." [Great applause.] (What a set of wicked miscreants, to 
applaud the impiety and sacrilige of this incarnate and detestible devil.) 
And this Brute arrogantly assumes to be a constitutional law3'er, and 
impudently assumes the character of commentator, and delivers a 
harangue to enlighten fools and prepare the tools (with which he intends 
to accomplish his treason) for action. It is a trite saying, that ingorance 
and impudence are concomitants ; and this harrangue furnishes a vivid 
illustration of the truth of the maxim ; for it is impossible that there 
could be a more pompous parade of arrogance and impudence, or a 
more miserable exhibition of folly, stupidity, and ignorance, than is 
combined in that silly abortion. Why, Jack Cade, the hero of the 
Mortimore rebellion, who punished the ordinary literary accomplish- 
ments of reading and writing with death, would have felt himself 
scandalized to have had the authorship of such a production attributed 
to him. This ignoramus proposes to inflict the penalty, and then try 



SI 

tlie case. His plan is to divest the President of his office, and then 
try hitn by a packed and vtnal Senate to determine whether he is 
entitled to it or not All that nonsense, therefore, about sending the 
Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest the President, and all that follows, not only 
stultifies the author, but it would be scouted by an idiot. I will not 
here recapitulate the argument used in reply to Wendell Phillips, but 
simply remark that no man with a spark of intellect can be made to 
believe that the Senate has either the right to imprison, or hold the 
President to bail ; for the idea is so utterly preposterous that no man 
of common sense and common honesty ivould 2^>'ofess to believe it. This 
political neophite and charlatan, and legal pettifogger, assumes, from the 
fact that the Chief Justice presides, that the Senate is, therefore, in- 
vested with all the legal and incidental powers and immunities of 
courts sitting to try criminals. Now, the Constitution provides that 
judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than re- 
ntoval from office, &c. — part of sec. 1st and 3d ; and that the President, 
Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall he 
removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, 
bribery, and other high misdemeanors. — Art, 4th, sec. 2. 

Now, the common-sense interpretation of these constitutional pro- 
visions is, that judgment and conviction must precede the infliction 
of the penalty ; and that any suspension of executive functions, or depo- 
sition of the President, is not only in conflict with these constitutional 
provisions, but will involve the ridiculous judicial anomaly of exe- 
cuting the judgment and inflicting the penalty before sentence of 
condemnation, which is legally and constitutionally inadmissible. 

For the sake of argument, I will concede the propriety of his as- 
sumption, and inquire what would be the practice of a criminal court, 
whose judgment and sentence would be limited and restricted to " a 
deposition or deprivation" of office ? It is evident that such a judg- 
ment would not affisct the person of the President in life or limb, nor 
would it affect his title to his effects, Gai bono ? Why attach the per- 
son of the President ? Now, is it not manifest that the incipient pro- 
cess would not be by capias, but by citation or summons, and leaving 
it perfectly optional with him to appear or not? And would his non- 
appearance be any impediment to the rendition of judgment? I do 
not see any necessity of referring to adjudicated authorities, to the 
common law, or American jurisprudence, to establish a position 
which cannot be controverted. But he says the Senate may demand 
bail. Bail for what purpose? That the efficacy of the judgment 
may not be defeated The judgment only operates upon the office; 
if its operation was upon the person — affecting him in life, or limb, or 
liberty, or his effects — then the efficacy of the judgment might depend 
upon good and sufficient bail ; but, if the satisfaction of the judgment 
in no way depends upon this precaution, bail of course would not be 
demanded. The judgment in the case under consideration is satisfied 
by the forfeiture of office; or, as the Biast expresses it, "by deposi- 
tion or deprivation of office !" Now, the office is not portable ; and 
can neither be secreted nor carried away ; and, if voluntarily vacated 
by the incumbent, the necessity of a process of ejectment would be 



32 

superseded ; find to this I presume the Brute wonhl have no objec- 
tion ; for it would be sirnplv clearing of a way ^ov a Radical traitor, 
who would be a servile and pliant tool, to execute the tyrannic;),! and 
despotic edicts of Triad Stevens & Co. la conclusion, give me leave 
to say, that wlien I refer to the demons concerned in the plot and con- , 
spiracy to overthrow the Government, I am amazed at the folly, cre- 
dulity, and madness of the people. Why is it that they don't refer 
to the character and antecedents of the miserable creatures who arro- 
gantly claim and assume the exclusive right and power to control and 
direct the destinies of the country ? Who is Ben. Batler, the Bmst? 
The itenerant mouth-piece of the party; and who directed and con- 
trolled the action of the Philadelphia Convention of self-appointed 
delegates, and that Convention of fanatics which met at Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania ? I have said that he is a political wojihite. Is not that 
true? He is now a raving, inveterate Radical ConsolidaLionist ! In 
1860, but one year before the war, he was a rabid Secessionist, and 
exerted all of his talents and influence to encourage and precipitate 
the rebellion. In every position in which he has acted, his conduct 
hns been vindictive, overbearing, and tyrannical and characterized 
by a low, odious littleness, which denoted both his baseness and 
meanness, and stamped him a trixter and traitor. In no position which 
he has occupied — either civd or military — has he discharged his 
duties with either fidelity or ability ; but has basely prostituted his 
advantages to the criminal purposes of robbeiy, peculation, and plun- 
der. This fact is so notorious and so universally believed, that, with 
all of his effrontery, be woujd not have the boldness to plead not 
guilty to the charge ; for the evidence of his thefts and peculations is 
so manifest that none can doubt his guilt. Seven years ago the Beast ^, 
was lean and poor; now he not only swims in tallow, but could pay 
for the cattle upon a thousand hills, and not make a sensible impres- 
sion upon the contents of his coffers. Where did he get it? Ask 
the starving victims of his cupidity and cruelty in New Orle ms ! 
They will tell you that so unbounded was his rapacity that he did not 
spare what rapine had left to penury; and. to give aiirfient to his 
avarice and food to his brutality, he did not hesitate to take the last 
crum from a starving and famished family, 'I'hese charges were not 
only freely circulated and believed, but it was expected and hoped 
that our Congress would have appointed a special committee of in- 
quiry. Why was it not done? Simply because the Brast is the 
pliant and servile tool of Thad. Stevens k Co., and a co worker to 
assist them them in the decapitation of the President and the demoli- 
tion of the Constitution. I take for granted, Th;id., that you will not 
thank him for specifying and 'promnl gating your charges against the 
President; and that his incautious rashness will not only receive the 
rebuke of your wicked associates in crime and treason, but henceforth 
the Beast will only be permitted to bray when ordered by his 
keeper. Who could have imagined, after so much noise and bluster 
about the President's treasons, that they would be restricted to the 
following specifications, viz: First, for declaring peace with the late 
rebellious States without ike consent of Congress ; secondly, tor making 



33 

a corrupt use of the pardouing power ; thirdly, for failing to enforce 
the Civil Ei^lits Bill ; fourthly, for appointing his fi-iends and sup- 
porters to office ; and fifthly, and lastly, for complicity in the late 
New Orleans riots. 

•Now, you know, Thad., that the power to make and declare peace 
has not been delegated to Congress, but that it is constitutionally in- 
vested in the President and the Senate, and that it is a wicked assump- 
tion of power in you and your fellow-conspirators in the House of 
fiepresentatives to claim the right to restrict or retard the President in 
the exercise of his prerogatives. But, Thad., candidly ; do you believe 
that it was an offence in the President, twelve months after a cessation 
of hostilities, and when thei'e was not a single armed rebel in the South, 
and swords had be^n converted into pruning hooks, and all had re- 
turned to their peaceful avocations ; I say, do you really believe it was 
treason in the President to notify the people of the United States that 
the war had ceased, and that peace reigned throughout our entire coun- 
try ? The President simply proclaimed that the war was over, and 
the country was at peace-^a fact that everybody knew and no one pro- 
fessed to disbelieve, except the 4;raitors who are plotting and conspiring 
to demolish the fair Temple of American liberty, and to erect upon its 
ruins a detestible oligarchy, when you and your minions of power 
and treason will reign triumphant. Was that treason ? It is treason 
to make war, says the Constitution ; but the idea is original and 
unique that it is treason to proclaim that the country ?'s at peace \Nh.exi 
everybody knows- it. Thad., you are as big a rascal as the Beast, but 
you are a little too smart to specify and publish charges which you 
know are too futile and foolish to impose even upon the simple. You 
next charge the President with having made a corrupt use of the par- 
doning power. Here, again, I suppose that his treason is, that he did not 
consult Congress. Now give me leave to remind you that the power to 
grant reyomves and pardons is deiegatedto the President unconditionally ; 
and it is his prerogative to exercise it without restriction, and that you 
have no right, and it is a wicked and palpable violation of the Consti- 
tution, and^ high crime and misdemeanor in the members of the Con- 
gress of the United States to interpose any obstacle or barrier to a free 
and unrestricted exercise of this benevolent and humane power. Now, 
you know, Thad., that it was not intended that Congress should exer- 
cise any power, in any way, to destroy the ef&cacy of the pardons con- 
ferred or extended by the President. I say you know this, and yet you 
are threatening, in violation of the Constitution, and in violation of 
your oaths to support it, to invalidate the pardons granted, and to hang 
and confiscate the property, not only of individuals pardoned, but every 
man {ivho has •properly enough to tempt your cupidity) who participated 
or sym^pathised with the rebellion. Now give me leave to inquire if 
,;passing a law over the veto of the President by a two-thirds majority 
of your packed and venal Congress to hang and confiscate the property 
of American citizens reprieved, would not be, not only legalizing mur- 
der and robbery, but an overt act of treason, for which you and your 
fellow-conspirators would deserve to be hung as high as Ha man ? 
(Now,, Thad,, you are just prepared to take your departure for a world 

o 
O 



m 

of spirits, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, and where 
there will be no rest for the wicked. Keraember, that mercy is only 
promised to the merciful. Thad., you have worshiped long enough at 
the altar of Baal ! Give the little span of the dregs of life to God ! 
Endeavor to love Him, and to do unto others as you would havethea 
do unto you. Be merciful and kind to your enemies; deal justly by 
all ; and practice Christian charity and forbearance to the untortunate 
and fallen ; and, as wicked as you are, you may yet be saved. May 
God, in his mercy, bring you to a knowledge and sense of your duty 
to your Maker and your fellow travellers to eternity ! May He soften 
your hardened and obdurate heart, and prepare you for all the enjoy- 
ments of that place in eternity to which you would consign our brothers 
and sisters of the South ! Amen. 

The third charge upon which the President is to be arraigned is, 
that he has failed to execute the civil rights bill. Now, Thad., it was 
a great piece of wickedness and villainy in you to call that a civil rights 
bill, which was designed to enslave free people, and compel what you 
call freedmen to be hired out by your myrmidons, and worked under 
your overseers for your benefit. Now, it would seem but fair and 
honest, while you are circulating this charge, to tell your people that 
the law is palpably unconstitutional, and that it was passed purposely 
to embarrass the President, and it was another of your villanous devices 
to involve the President in difficulty ; for, Mr. Johnson being under the 
sacred obligation of an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Con- 
stitution, it would be extremely embarrassing to be compelled to en- 
force the execution of a law which he had pronounced to be unconsti- 
tutional, and which to his sense is palpably so ; and tell them, to insure 
its passage over the Presidential Veto, you basely and frauduently ex- 
pelled a sitting Conservative member, knowing that his State legis- 
lature, by joint ballot, would certainly fill his place with one of the 
faithful ; and by this base fraud you secured a sufficient majority to 
enable the Senate to override the Veto, and to enable Congress to 
paralyze the Executive ; and by unconstitutional laws to concentrate 
all power in Congress ; and tell them frankly that the President, under 
all the circumstances, is not only not under an obligation to enforce its 
execution, but under an imperative obligation to resist and prevent it, 
until it shall be adjudicated constitutional by the Supreme Judicial 
Tribunal ; and have the honesty to tell them that the charge of the 
Beast is false, malicious, and wicked, and that the President has not 
failed or refused to execute — no case having arisen which required any 
action. And tell them that the fifth charge was simply a cunning 
device to shift the responsibility from your own shoulders to the Presi- 
dent's ; and that if the order of the President had been speedily 
executed, that the base plot by Stevens & Co. would have been de 
feated, and the horrid catastrophe averted. Come, Thad., try to be 
magnanimous once before you die. But Mr. J. has abused the appoint- 
ing power 1 Now, Thad., is it not wonderful that this Radical Congress 
of demons have the brazen and unblushing impudence to charge that 
as a high crime, when it is patent that plunder and spoil are all they 
desire ; and if enjoyed the powxr of removal, that no gentleman, animated 



oo 



by a spirit of philantliropy, who entertains a scintilla of sympathy for 
the fallen and unfortunate, or who has the courage to doubt the infalli- 
bility and patriotism of the t3^rants and traitors whose motto is, "to 
hell with a conscience which is not subserveant to party," would be 
suffered to retain office for a moment? Now, Thad., you and your 
myrmidons, Butler the Beast, Sumner, Wilson, and reverdy jnhri.%nn in- 
clusive, would favor a general sweep of honest gentlemen and patriots 
from office, that positi-ms vacated might be filled with Radical traitors 
and deluded free negrcns. You know this to be true, and yet you im- 
pudently and preposterously charge it as a high crime that Mr. John- 
son, following the dictates of his pure and enlightened conscience, 
animated by a law of nature written by the pen of Deity in his honest, 
patriotic heart, has preferred his friends, whom he believes to be honest 
and patriotic, to traitors and tyrants who are trampling upon the Con- 
stitution, and alike disregarding the laws of justice and humanity, and 
the demands of patriotism. Mirabile dictu I that a man of your saga- 
city should make this a charge of malversation, when it is known that 
it has been practiced and sanctioned universally from the date of the 
first republic down to the present period, and that no honest man 
entertaining a patriotic desire to perpetuate the blessings of Republican 
Liberty can ever voluntarily participate with miscreants and demons 
whose object is its destruction. Too shallow, Thad.I I am amazed at 
your folly, and feel humiliated that things in human form are the min- 
ions and slaves of your power. Try something else ! something that 
would not stultify stupidity! You are the great Mogul and leader of 
the conspirators, and your rule so absolute that all responsibility rests 
upon you, for Sumner, Fessenden, and reverdy Johnson, and the rest of 
the congressional small fry are your satraps and understrappers to give 
force and efficacy to your tyrannical edicts. You are the master magi- 
cian who works the political wires ; these liliputian politicians — the 
puppets and automatons at their extremities, who danced to any 
tune which you set to music. I beg pardon of old Ben. Wade, of Ohio, 
that compound of bitterness and acidity, whose vinegar visage por- 
trays a Stygian spirit, compared with which the spirit of the angry 
boy of the alchymist would be the essence and representative of 
pleasantry and good humor. Ben. Johnson's boy only fumed when 
tormented by the living ; but this old hyena grins, and growls, and 
snarls alike, over the living and the dead, and is so entirely under the 
dominion of the devil, that he would think himself scandalized by the 
admission that he could be influenced to do a deed of mercy, or an act 
of charity. Now give me leave to contrast your professions with your 
doings. You profess to be a philanthropist and to entertain almost a 
reverential affection for the poor soldier, and to love the dear people 
i 80 superlatively that there is no personal privation which you would 
not joyfully encounter and endure to guard their interest and advance 
their prosperity. Now, what have you done for the poor soldiers, their 
disconsolate widows, and unhappy orphans? You have reluctantly 
passed a law allowing $50 for iivo years of toil, sweat, and blood — 
every day of which time their bosoms were bared and their lives 
periled in defence of their country ; and the law which you have en- 



3i| 

acted is so complicated with preliminar}^ minutia, that to attend to its 
requirements will involve an amount of time and ex])i-'nditure of money 
more than equal to one half of the amount. Of this small amount, 
the pittance realized would not amount to $30. You and your con- 
gressional serfs professs to be a disinterested and self-sacTificing set of 
patriots, and wish it believed that you are ready and willing to suffer 
political martyrdom on the altar of your country's liberty. You are 
particularly tender upon the subject of taxing your poor con- 
stituents. Now give me leave to ask how does this profession accord 
with the fact that your Radical Congress, under your leadership, which 
voted to the poor soldier $50 for two years' services so grudgingly, did 
by the same law so increase your own salaries that your pay is now 
equal to $40 ^?er day and will exceed $50/orthe short session. 

Fifty dollars per day, for Cfmgressmen, ! lu-enty-Jive per year for 
soldiers! reduced to $15 by payment of incidental expenses — to say 
nothing of loss of time. There is something in this legislation so 
disgustingly mean and so horridly loathsome that it is humiliating to 
an American citizen to be forced to acknowledge that our Federal 
Legislature is com[)Osed of Shylocks and misers, who prostitute their 
privileges to the vile and degrading purpose of filling their coffers 
by base peculation. Yes, Thad., by statutory peculation ! The theft 
is plain. The law is a mockery. The legal consideration of the ser- 
vice rendered was only $3,000. The session was about to end, and 
the Radical Congress actually adjourned the day after the vile pecu- 
lation was perpietrated by a law retrospective in its operation — referring 
hack to the first day of the session — and giving an addition of nearly 
$2,800 (twentyei;.'ht hundred) to you and each of "your understrap- 
pers, or nearly $6,000 for the session. Was not this siaintory pecula- 
tion f Was it not a base theft perpetrated by a vile prostitution of 
legislative power to the purposes of fraud and plunder ? Answer 
these questions, Thad. Professing to sympathise with the poor and 
oppressed, you add two millions and more /o their burdens by increasing 
your oion salary from six to ten tJiotisa.nd dollars a term ! Yes, you old 
iron-monger, who now enjoys the benefit of a high tariff' paid by these 
same people, in the exuberance of your pretended affection, you 
saddle them with an addition uf more than two millions, each Con- 
gressional term, to afford additional aliment to your base cupidity and 
sordid avarice. And you profess to be a gentleman and patriot, you 
sacrilegious old wretch, whose motto is " to hell with a conscience 
which is not subservient to party ;" and I will now add "which feels 
any compunctious visitings at the perpetration of frauds, peculation, 
thefts, or robberies, when the plunder may be applied to the party 
purpose of annihilating the Executive Department of our Govern- 
ment, and making Congress absolute and positively omnipotent." I 
am perfectly amazed, Thad., that the people can't see what a political 
demon you are, and what an army of devils you command ; and I am 
still more amazed that the intelligent American people should tolerafe 
your arrogance and effrontery, and especially that any sane man 
should accord to you either virtue or talent, or impute to you any 
quality allied to greatness ; for it is manifest, from the little odious 



meanness^■'s to which you daily resort to aoconiplisli your dirt}'- and 
treasonable purposes^ that you have neither greatness of mind nor ele- 
vation of soul ; and, if you have any ]^retention to gre itness, it con- 
sists in oonf;eiving bad measures and pursuing them obstinately to 
tbeir accomplishment. In short, that you are only great in engender- 
ing wickedness and perpetrating crime. Now, give me leave to say 
that, if our country should be precipitated into a civil war or second 
rebellion, the responsibility will rest upon you ; for you are the Radi- 
cal potentate who, with iron rule, directs and controls all the tools to 
be used in the overthrow of our Government. You are the chairman 
orf" the committee of fifteen which originates and prepares all lueasares 
to be adopted by you?- Congress. I say adopted : for its resolves have 
the force of edicts. The Construction Committee controls your Con- 
gress, and you control the committee; and you are the old Belzebub 
who will answer for all the evils which this treasonable contrivance 
may bring upon the country. And here again we encounter another 
of your cunning tricks and devices to cajole and mislead the people ; 
for the name or style imports that the purpose and design of the com- 
mittee is to reconstcuct the Union ; and, to give favor and force to 
the cou'^truction, you hypocritically assume that yours is t.he only true 
loyal UnioiL party. This, you know, is ad captaudum, designed to im- 
pose upon the simple and confiding. You aiso know that four-fifths 
of the intelligent people of the Northern States are in favor of imme- 
diate reconstruction upon any basis which will restore peace to the 
country ; and you appear to understand that a vast majority every- 
where are creatures of passion imd impulse rather than of reason and 
judgment ; and that, therefore, it is only necessary to inflame and un- 
settle the popular mind, by incendiary reports and inflammatory 
hurangues, to insure a consummation of your treasonable conspiracy 
against the Constitution, the Union, and Civil Liberty ; and you also 
seem to understand that nine-tenths- of the ignorant estimate and ap- 
preciate the thing, with reference to the name or style, rather than to 
the vices or virtues inherent ; and, aware of this, you have resorted 
to the cunning device of calling yours the Union party, and this dia 
bolical and hell engendered committee " A Reconstruction Commit- 
tee." Now, Thad., you know, and every person of any intelligence per- 
fectly understands, that this villainous committee — and committee of 
villains — is a cunningly constructed device of the Radical traitors not 
to reconstruct, but to centralize and consolidate the Northern States, 
and to raise upon the ruins of our Federal Repiihlic an odious oligar-!' 
ch}^, composed of Thad. Stevens & Co., old Wade, Parson Brownlow, 
Butler, the Beast, and others of like calibre and character, who intend 
to degrade the enlightened chivaU-y of the South to serfdom and 
feudal villanage, and to govern the North by absolute and tyrannic 
rule. Your villainous expedients to incense and embitter the people 
against your patriotic President, are even more odious, unjust, and 
(tegrading than the low cunning devices resorted to to divert public 
attention from your treasonable conspiracy to destroy the Constitu- 
tion and the Union. It is utterly impossible for the President to do 
right. If an unconstitutional law, fraudulentl}^ enacted, is not exe- 



38 

cuted in hot "haste, even when a case has not arisen authorizing Ex- 
ecutive action, he is threatened with impeachment ; and, if he exe- 
cutes a law, which he is bound to do by the Constitution and his oath 
of office, he is arraigned at the hustings, and a constitutional discharge 
of his official obligations encounter the bitter invective of base dema- 
gogues and parasities, who impudently and wickedly make a faith- 
ful discharge of his constitutional duties the basis of inflammatory 
haranafues, designed to fire and inflame the resentment of the Fenian 
Brotherhood. Now, Thad., if Mr. Johnson had refused or failed to 
execute the neutrality laws, and our country consequently involved 
in a war with Great Britain, what would have been the course of youf 
Eadical party ? Would they have said well done good and faithful 
servant ? Or would his official delinquency have been made the basis 
for a Congressional impeachment? Would you not have rejoiced at 
the wicked official malversation, as affi^rding a justijiahle ground for 
the impeachment and removal of the President ? I take it for grant- 
ed that Fenians will have no difficulty in answering these questions. 
Come now, Thad., have the magnanimity to say to the Fenians that 
it is the business of Congress to make and rej^tal laivs — the Constitu- 
tional duty of the President to execute them. Tell them the obliga- 
tion upon the President was imperative; that Mr. Johnson had no 
discretion, and that an omission to execute the laws would have laid 
him amenable to impeachment and removal from office; and that 
Thad. Stevens & Co. would have gloried in such a consummation. 
Tell them that it was perfectly in the power of Congress to have re- 
pealed the nutrality laws at any time; and that a law repealing them 
would have had the hearty approval and sanction of the President. 
Tell them that all the detriment and impediment to the Fenian cause 
was the result of the failure upon the part of Congress to repeal the 
neutrality laws. 

Come now, Thad., have the magnanimity to saddle the right horse ! 
Frankly admit that these laws were not repealed ; that the President, 
by a faithful execution of his official duties, might be rendered obnox- 
ious to Fenian reprobation. And tell them truly, that the President, 
at every period of his life, has been the uncompromising friend of Ire- 
land and its impulsive, warm-hearted, ingenious people, and the un- 
flinching friend and advocate of universal liberty and independence, 
and would rejoice to see ihe Emerald Isle " regenerated and dii-en- 
thralled from English ty runny by the iirepistible genius of universal 
emancipation." And that at all times he has been the stern and un- 
yielding protector and defender of political and religious liberty ; and 
at no time has tolecated any policy which has conflicted with either ; 
and that all secret associations, having for their object the destruction 
of either, has and will ever encounter his unqualified condemnation 
and execration. And tell them honestly that that execrable Abolition 
Knownothingism was engendered and nurtured by New England 
fanatics and radicals ; and that the heads and leaders of that odious 
proscriptive party, who would have deprived 1;hem of the enjoyment 
of political and religious freedom, and who now seek to degrade them 
by conferring upon the negro political privileges denied to emigrant 



39 

Irishmen, are the very same fienJs and demons who now invoke their 
aid to enable them to elevate to desjwiic power su^sh creatures as Thad, 
Stevens, Wade, Butler, k Co. Your last and most ridiculous expedient 
to poison and prejudice the public mind, is the cr}'- you have raised 
against the President for not bringing the late President of the Con- 
federate Government to trial. This is so superlatively foolish and pre- 
posterous, that I consider it an insult to the popular judgment. It is 
sufficient to say, in reply to everything which has been said and 
charged, that Mr. Johnson is an executive and not a judicial ofl&cer ; 
and that as soon as Jeff. Davis was arrested and imprisoned his 
duties and powers over him ceased. He is in the custody of the civil 
judicial authority. He is the prisoner of yt^ur Chief Justice, who is 
the head of a co-ordinate Department of the Government, and over 
whom the President has no more control than he has over Congress, the 
other co-ordinate; that the Judicial and Legislative Departments are 
co-ordinate, is sufficient to satisfy any rational mind that the President 
has no power or right to control the Chief Justice ia the exercise of 
his official functions. But you, Thad., and your tools and minions, 
have the power to make him do his duty. You have the power to 
impeach any high judicial functionary who either refuses or fails to dis- 
charge his official obligations. Now, it is (?learly my opinion that the 
preposterous pretexts to which your Chief Justice has resorted to post- 
pone this trial is gross official misconduct, not only degrading to the 
high office of Chief Justice, but indicate a littleness and mean- 
ness, and a low and base spirit of persecution, not only in conflict with 
his official duties, but of every feeling allied to justice and humanity. 
He has certainly been voluntarily guilty of gross, wicked, and unpar- 
donable judicial delinquency, and deserves to be impeached. I say 
impeach him ! When I feel in the humor, and my obliging amanuen- 
sis and medium shall be willing to give me his time and labor, you will 
probably hear from me again. 

THE SPIRIT OF MADISON. 



M :e s a. a tc 

OF THE 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



KETtTRNIXG 



To the Mouse of Representatives A Bill entitled "An Act to provide for 
tlie More Efficient Governm.eat of the Rebel States^ 



■"o«>- ♦ <!&>■* — «ni»— 



To the House of Representatives : 

I have examined the bill "to provide for the more efficient Government of the 
Rebel States," with the care and anxiety which its transceudant importance is calcu- 
lated to awaken. I am unable to give it my assent for reasons so gi-ave, that I hope 
a statement of them may have some influence on the minds of the» patriotic and en- 
lighteiied men with whom the decision must ultimately rest. 

The bill places all the people of the ten States therein named under the absolute 
domination of military rulers, and the preamble undertakes to give the reason upon 
which the measiire' is based, and the gr<aind upon which it is justified. It declares 
that there exists in those States no legal Governments and no adequate protection for 
life or property, and asserts the necessity of enforcing peace and good order with^in 
their limits. Is this tine as matter of fact ? 

It is not denied that the States in question have each of them an actual Government, 
with all the powers — executive, judicial, and legislative — which properly belong to a free 
State. They are organized like the other States of the Union, and like them they make, 
administer, and execute the laws which concern their domestic affairs. An existing 
de facto Government, exercising such functions as these, is itself the law of the States 
upon all matters within its jurisdiction. To pronounce the supreme law-making power 
Of an established State illegal, is to say that law itself is unlawful. 

The provisions which these Governments have made for the preservation of order, 
the suppression of crime, and the redress of private injuries, are in substance and prin- 

ple the same as those which prevail in the Northern States and in other civilized 
countries. They certainly have not succeeded in preventing the commission of all 
crime, nor has this been accomplished anywhere in the world. There, as well as else- 
where, offenders sonietimes escape for want of vigorous prosecution, and occasionally, 
perhaps, by the inefaeiency of courts or the prejudice of juror^. It is undoubtedly 
true that these evils have been much increased and aggravated. North and South, by 
demoralizing influences of civil war, and by the rancorous passions which the 
contest has engendered. But that these people are maiutainin" -'loal Governments for 
themselves which habitually defeat the object of all Governme: ' 'id render their own 
lives and property insecure,' is in itself utterly improbable, and ih ■ averment of the bill 
to that efl'ect is not supported by any evidence which has 'come to my knoweledge. 
All the information I have on the subject convinces me that the masses of th>i Southern 
people, and those who control their public acts, while they entertain diverse opinions 
fln questions of Federal policy, are completely united in the effort to reorganize their 
society on the basis of peace, and to restore their mutual prosperity as rapidly and as 
completely as their circumstances will permit. 

The bill, however, would seem to show upon its face that the establishment of peace 
and good order is not its real object. The fifth section declares that the preceding 
sections should cease to operate in any State where certain events shall have happen- 
ed. These events are : First, the selection of delegates to a State Convention by an 
election at which negroes shall M allowed to vote. Second, the formation of a State 
constitution by the Convention so chosen. Third, the insertion into the State constitu- 
tion of a provision which will secure the right of voting at all election to negroes, and to 
suck white men as may not be disfranchised for rebellion or felony. Fourth, the sub- 
mission of the eonstitu'tion for ratification to negroes and white men not disfranchised. 



42 

and its actual ratification by their vote. Fifth, the submission of the State constitu- 
tiou to Congress for examination and approval, and the actual approval of it by that 
body. Sixth, the adoption of a certain amendment to the Federal Constitution by a 
vote of the Legislature elected under the new constitution. Seventh, the adoption of 
said amendment by asufficient number of other States to make it apart of the Constitution 
of the United States. All these conditions must be fulfilled before the people of any of 
these States can be relieved from the bondage of military domination ; but when they 
are fulfilled, then immediately the pains and penalties of the bill are to cease, no mat- 
ter whether there be peace and order or not, without any reference to the security of 
life or properly. The excuse given for the bill in the preamble is admitted by the bill 
itself not to be real. The military rule which it establishes is plainly to be used — not 
for any purpose of order or for the prevention of crime, but solely as a means of coerc- 
ing the people into the adoption of principles and rteasures to which it is known that 
they are opposed, and upon which they have an undeniable right to exercise their own 
judgment. 

I submit to Congress whether this measure is not, in its whole character, scope, and 
object, without precedent and without authority, in palpable conflict with the plaint-st 
provisions of the Constitution, and utterly destructive to those great principles of 
liberty and humanity for which our ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic have shed 
so much blood and expended so much treasure. 

The ten States named in the bill are divided into five districts. For each district an 
officer of the army, not below the rank of Brigadier General, is to be appointed to rule 
over the people ; and he is to be supported with an efficient military force to enable 
him to perform hi^duties and enforce his authority. Those duties and that authority, 
as defined by the third section of the bill, are, "to protect all persons in their rights of 
person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to punish, 
or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace, or criminals." The power 
thus giving to the commanding officer over all the people of each district is that of an 
absolute monarch. His mere will is to take the place of all law. The law of the States 
is now the only rule applicable to the subjects placed under his control, and that is 
completely displaced by the clause which declares all interference of the State authority 
to be null and void. He alone is permitted to determine what are rights of person or 
property, and he may protect them in such away as in his discretion may seem proper. 
It places at his free disposal all the lands and goods in his district, and he may distri- 
bute them without let or hindrance to whom he pleases. Being bound by no State 
law, and there being no other law to regulate the subject, he may make a criminal 
code of his own ; and he can make it as bloody as any recorded in history, or he can 
reserve the privilege of acting upon the impulse of his private passions in each cas« 
that arises. He is bound by no rules of evidence ; there is, indeed, no provision by 
which he is authorized or required to take any evidence at all. Everything is a crime 
which he chooses to call so, and all persons are condemned whom he pronounces to be 
guilty. He is not bound to keep any record, or make anv report of his proceedings. 
He may arrest his victims wherever he finds them, without warrant, accusation, or 
proof of probable cause. If he gives them a trial bt^fore he inflicts' the punishment, he 
gives it of his grace and mercv, not because he is commanded so to do. 

To a casual reader of the bill, it might .seem that some kind of trial was secured by 
it to persons accused of crime ; but such is not the case. The officer "may allow local 
civil tribunals to try offenders," but of course this does not require that he should do 
so. It any State or Federal court presumes to exercise its legal jurisdiction by the 
trial of a malefactor without his special permission, he can break it up, and punish the 
judges and jurors as being themselves malefactors. He can save his friends from justice, 
and despoil his enemies contrary to justice. 

It is also provided that " he shall have power to organize military commissions or tri- 
bunals ; ' ' but this power he is not commanded to exercise . It is merely permissive, and 
is to be used only "when in his judgment it may be necessary for the trial of offenders." 
Even if the sentence of a commission were made a prerequisite to the punishment of a 
party, it would be scarcely the slightest check u' on the officer who has authority to 
organize it as he pleases, prescribe its mode of proceeding, appoint its Biembers from 
among his own subordinates, and revise all its decisions. Instead of mitigating the 
harshness of his single rule, such a tribunal would be used much more probably to 
divide the responsibility of making it more cruel and unjust. 

Several provisions, dictated by the humanity ef Congress, have been inserted in the 
bill, apparently to restrain the power of the commanding officer ; but it seems to me 
that they are of no avail for that purpose. The fourth section provides — First. That 
trials shall not be unnecessarily delayed ; but I think I have shown that the power is 



43 

given to punisli witliout trial, and if so, this provision is practically inoperative. Second. 
Cruel or unusual^pimisLment is not to be inflicted ; but who is to decide what is cruel 
and what is unusual? The words have acquired a legal meaning by long use in the 
courts. Can it be expected that military officers will understand or follow a rule ex- 
pressed in language so purely technical, and not pertaining in the least degree to their 
profession ? If not, then each officer may define cruelty according to his own temper, 
and if it is not usual, he will make it usual. Corporal punishment, imprisonment, the 
gag, the ball and chain, and the almost insupportable forms of torture invented for 
military punishment, lie within the range of choice. Third. The sentence of a com- 
mission is not to be executed without being approved by the commander, if it aflects 
life or liberty, and a sentence of death must be approved by the Presiiient. This ap- 
plies to cases in which there has been atrial and sentence. I take it to be clear, under 
this bill, that the military commander may condemn to death, without even the form 
of a trial by a military commission, so that the life of the condemned may depend upon 
the will of two men instead of one. 

It is plain that the authority here given to the military officer amounts to absolute 
despotism. But, to make it still more unendurable, the bill provides that in may be 
delegated to as many subordinates as he chooses to appoint; for it declares that he 
shall " punish or cause to bo punished." Such a power has not been wielded by any 
monarcli in England for more than five hundred years. In all that time no people who 
speak the Euglish language have borne such servitude. It reduces the whole popula- 
tion of the ten States— all persons, of every color, sex, and condition, and every strauger 
within there limits — to the most abject and degrading slavery. No master ever had a 
control so absolute over his slaves as this bill gives to the military officers over both 
white and colored persons. 

It may be answered to this that the officers of the army are too magnanimous, just, 
and humane to oppress and trample upon a subjugated people. I do not doubt that 
army officers are as well entitled to this kind of conddence as any other class of men. 
But the history of the world has been written in vain, if it does not teach us that 
unrestrained authority can never be safely trustei in human hands. It is almost sure 
to be more or less abused under any circumstances, and it has always resulted in gross 
tyranny where the rulers who exercise it are strangers to their subjects, and corue 
among them a§ the representatives of a distant power, and more especially when the 
power that sends them in unfriendly. Governments closely resembling that here pro- 
posed have been fairly tried in Hungary and Poland, and the sutferiag endured by 
those people roused the sympathies of the entire world. It was tried in Ireland, an i 
though tempered at first by principles of English law, it gave birth to cruelties so 
atrocious that they are never recounted without just indignation. The French Con- 
vention armed itsdeputies with this power, and sent them to the Southern departments 
of the Republic. The massacres, murders, and other atrocities which they committed, 
show what the passions of the ablest men in the most civilized society will tempt them 
to do when wholly unrestrained by law. 

The men of our race in every age have struggled to tie up the hands of their Gov- 
ernments and keep them within the law ; because their own experience of all mankind 
taught them that rulers could not be relied on to concede those rights which they 
were not legally bound to respect. The head of a great empire has sometimes goT- 
erned it with a mild and paternal sway ; but the kindness of an irresponsible deputy 
never yields what the law does not extort from him. Between such a master and the 
people subjected to his domination there can be nothing but enmity ; he punishes 
them if they resist his authority, and, if they submit to it, he hates them for their 
servility. 

I come now to a question which is, if possible, still more important. Have we the 
power to establish and carry into execution a measure like this ? I answer, certainly 
not, if we derive our authority from the Constitution, and if we are bound by the 
limitations which it imposes. 

This proposition is perfectly clear— that no branch of the Federal Government, exe- 
cutive, legislative, or judicial, can have any just powers, except those which it derives 
through and exercises under the organic law of the Union. Outside of the Constitu- 
tion we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have 
only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits our functions, 
and applies to all subjects. It protects not only the citizens of States which are with- 
in the Union, but it shields every human being who comes or is brought under our 
jurisdiction. We have no right to do in one place, more than in another, that which 
the Constitution says we shall not do at all. If, therefore, the Southern States were 
in truth out of the Union, we could not treat their people in a way which the funda- 
raeatttl law foj'bids, 



44 

Some persons assume tliat the success of our arms, in crushiug the opposition which 
was made in some of tfie States to the execution of the Federal laws, reduced tho.se 
States and all their peop^ — the innocent as well as the guilty — to 'the condition of 
vassalage, and gave. us a power over them which the Constitution does not hestow, or 
define, or limit. Ko fallacy can be more tranp;parent than this. Our victories sub- 
jected the insurgents to legal obedience, not to the yoke of an arbitrary despotism. 
Wiien an absolute sovereign reduces his rebellious subjects, he may deal with them 
according to his pleasure, becau^je he had tbat power before. But when a limited 
monarch puts down an insurrection, he must still govern according to law. If an in- 
surrection should take place in one of our States against the authority of the State Gov- 
ernment, and end in the overthrow of those who planned it, would that take away the 
rights of all the people of the counties where it was favored by a part or a maj-)rity 
of tJie population? Could they, for such a reason, be wholly outlawed and deprived 
of tkeir representation in the Legislature ? I have always contended that the Govern- 
ment of the United States was sovereiijn within its constitutional sphere ; that it exe- 
cuted its laws, like the States themselves, by applying its coercive power directly to 
individuals ; and that it could put down insurrection with th^- same efiect as a ' State, 
and no other. The opposite doctrine is the worst heresy of those who advocated 
secession, and cannot be agreed to without admitting that heresy to be righc. 

Invasion, insurrection, rebellion, and domestic violence, were anticipated when the 
Government was framed, and the means of repelling and suppressing them were 
wisely provided for in the Constitution ; but it was not thought necessary to declare 
tliat the States in which they might occur should be expelled from the Union. Rebel- 
lions, which were invariably suppressed, occurred prior to that out of which these 
questions grow ; but the States continued to exist, and the Union remained unbroken. 
In Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, in Riiode Island, and in New York, at different peri- 
ods in our iiistory, violent and armed opposition to the United Stat-s was carried on ; 
but the relations of tliose States with the Federal Government were not supposed to 
be interrupted or changed thereby, after the rebjUioas portions of their population 
were defeated and put down. It is true that, in these earlier cases, there was no 
formal expression of a determination to withdraw from the Union, but it is also true 
that, ill the Southern States, the Ordinances of Secession were treated by all the 
frj.e:i;l < of the Union as mere nulities, and are now acknowledged to .be so by the 
S,1iat.-.s themselves. If we admit that they had any force or validity, or that they did 
in l-ict take the States in which they were passed out of the Union, we sweep from 
un<i i- our feet all the grounds upon which we stand in justifying the use of Federal 
tori'v; to maintain the integrity of the Government. 

i'liis is a bill passed by Congress in time of peace. There is not in any one of the 
Spates brought under its operation either war or insurrection. The laws of the States 
and the Federal Government are all in undisturbed and harmonious operation. The 
courts — State and Federal — are open, and in the full exercise of their proper authori« 
ty. Over every State comprised in these five military districts, life, liberty, and 
property are secured by State laws and Federal laws, and the National Constitution 
is everywhere in force and everywhere obeyed. What, then, is the ground on which 
this biil proceeds ? The title of the bill announces that it is intended " for the more 
efficient government" of these ten States. It is recited, by way of preamble, that no 
legal State Governments, "nor adequate protection for ^ife or property," exi.st in 
these States, and that peace and good order should be thus enforce!. The first thing 
which arrests attention upon these recitals, which prepare the way for martial law, is 
this: that the only foundation upon which martial law can exist under our form of 
Government is not stated or so much as pretended. Actual war, foreign invasion, 
domestic insurrection — none of these appear; and none of these in fact exist. It is 
not even recited that any sort of war or insurrection is threatened. Let us pause 
here to consider, upon this question of constitutional law and the power of (-'ongress, 
a recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in e.x parte Millig^n. 

I will first quote from the opinion of the majority of the Court : " Martial law cannot 
arise from a threatened invasion. The necessity must be actual and present, the in- 
vasion real, such as efiectually closes the courts and deposes the civil administration." 
We see tixat martial law comes in only when actual war closes the courts and deposes 
the civil authority ; but this bill, in time of peace, makes martial law operate as 
though we were in actual war, and became the cause inste'ad of the comsequence of the 
abrogation of civil authority. One more quotation: " It follows, from what has been 
said on this subject, that there are occasions when martial law can be properly ap- 
plied. If in foreign invasion or civil war the courts are actually closed, and it is im- 
possible to admip^st^f^crimiual justice according to law, then oi-\ the theatre of active 



45 

military oppratioiif?, where war really prevails, there is a necessitj' to fnrnish a substi- 
tute for the civil authority thus overthrown, to preserve the safety of the army ftrfd 
society ; and as no power is left but the military, it is allowed to govern by martial 
rule until thp laws can have their free course." 

I now quote from the opinion of the minority of the Court, delivered by Chief Jus- 
tice Chase : " We by no means assert that Congress can establish and apply the laws 
of war where no war has been declared or exists. Where peace exists the laws of 
peace must prevail." This is sufficiently explicit. Peace exists in all the territory to 
which this bill applies. It asserts a power in Congress, in time of peace, to set aside 
the laws of peace and to substitute the laws of war. The minority, concurring with 
the majority, declares that T'ongress does not possess that power. Agaiii, and, if jvos- 
sible, more emphatically, the Chief Justice, with remarkable clearness and condensa- 
tion, sums lip the whole matter as follows : 

,_," Tliere are under tlie Constitution three kinds of military jurisdiction — one to be exercised botii in 
^eace and war; another to be exercised in time of foreign (v;ir without the boundaries of the ITnitirl 
State'!, or in time of rebellion and civil war witliin the States or districts ocou|>ied by rebels treated as 
belligerenis ; and a thiid to be exercised in time of invasion or insurrecti()n witliiu tiie limits of tlie United 
States, or during rebellion within the limits of the Slates raaiiitaininH adliesiou to the National Govern- 
ment, when tlie public danger requires its exercise The iirst of these may be Called juri.-^diotion under 
MtLlTAEY Law, and is found in acts of Congress prescribing Rules and Articles of War, or otherwise pro- 
vidiDg foj- the government of the National Forces ; tlie second may be distinguished as Military Goveex- 
MENT, superseding, as far as may be deemed expedient, the local law, and exercised by ihe military com- 
mander under the direction of the President, with the express or implied sanction of Congress ; while the 
third may be denominated Martial J^aw Proper, and is called into action by Congressy or: temporarily, 
wDen the action of Coiigresi- c-annot be invited, and in the case of Justifying or excusing peril, by the 
Pi'esident, in times of insurrection or invasion, or of civil or foreign war, within districts or localities where 
ordinary law no longer adequately secures public safety and private rights." 

It will be observed tjiat of the three kinds of military jurisdiction which can be 
exercised or crf-ated under our Constitution, there is but one that can prevail in time 
of peace, and tliat is the code of lawi enacted by Congress for the government of the 
National Forces. That body of military law has no application to the citizen, nor even 
to the citizen soldier enrolled in the militia in time of peace. But this bill is not a 
part of that sort of military law, for that applies only, to the soldier and not to the 
citizen, whilst, contrawise, the military law provided by this bill applies only to the 
citizen and not to the soldier. 

I need not say to the representatives of the American people that tlteir Constitution 
forbids the exercise of judicial power in any way but one — that is by the ordained and 
established courts. It is equally well known that in all criminal cases a trial by jury 
is made indispensable by the express words of that instrument. 1 will not enlarge on 
the inestimable value of the right thus secured to every freeman, or speak of the 
danger to public liberty in all parts of the country which must ensue from a dnuial of 
it any where or upon any pretence. A very recent decision of, the Supreme Court has 
traced the history, vindicated the dignity, and made known the value ()f this great 
privilege so clearly that nothing more is needed. To What extent a violation of it 
might be excused in time of war or public danger may admit of discussion, but we ,are 
providing now for a time of profound peace, where theie is not an armed soldier within 
our borders except those who are in the service of the Government. It is iu such a 
condition of things that an act of Congress is proposed which, if carried out, would 
deny a trial by the lawful courts and juries to nine miilions of Ameiican citizens and 
to their posterity for an indefinite period. It seems to be scarcely possible tliat any 
one should seriously believe this coiasistent with a Constitution wiiich dei.lares, in 
simple, plain, and unambiguous language, that all persoirs shall have that riglit, and 
that no person shall ever in any case be deprived of it. The Constitution also forbids 
the arrest of the citizen without judicial warrant, founded on probable cause. This 
bill authorizes an arrest without warrant, at the pleasure of a military commander. 
The Constitution declares that "no person sliall be held to answer for a capital or other- 
wise infamous crime unless on presentment by a grand jury." This bill holds every 
pert on not a soldie'r answerable for all crimes and all charges without any presentment. 
The Constitution declares that "no perton shall be deprived of life, liberty, or profierty 
without dtte process of law." This bill- sets, aside all process of, law;, and makes the 
citizen answerable in his person and property to the will of one man, aiid as to h;s life 
to the will of two. Finally, the Constitution declares that "the privilege of the writ 
of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, 
the public safety maj' require it;" whereas this bill declares martial law (which of 
itself suspends this great writ_) in time of peace, and auLiiorizes the military to make 
the. arrest, and gives .to the prisoner |Only one priyilege, and th^t is, a trial without,- un-, 
necessary delay. H'- has no hope of release .frpm ctistody, except the hope, such as it 
is, of release by acquital before a military commission. 



' The United States are bound to guarantee to each State a republican form of govern- 
ment. Can it be pretended tViat this obligation is not palpably broken if we carry out 
a measure like this, which wipes away every vestige of republican government in ten 
States, and puts the life, property, liberty, and honor of the people in each of them 
under the dominion of a single person, clothed witli unlimited power? 

The Parliament of Knglaud, exercising the omnipotent power which it claimed, was 
accustomed to pass bills of attainder ; that is to say, it would convict men of treason 
and other crimes by legislative enactment. The persons accused had a hearing, some- 
times a patient and fair one ; but generally party prejudice prevailed instead of justice. 
It often became necessary for Parliament to acknowledge its error and reverse its own 
action. The fathers of our countiy determined that no such thing should occur here. 
They withheld the power from Congress, and thus forbade its exercise by that body ; 
and they provided in the Constitution that no State should pass any bill of attainder. 
It is, therefore, impossible for any person in the country to be constitutionally convicted 
or punished for any crime by a legislative proceeding of any sort. Nevertheless, here 
is a bill of attainder against nine millions of people at oace. It is based upon an 
accusation so vague as to be scarcely intelligible, and found to be true upon no credible 
evidence. Not one of the nine millions was heard in his own defence. The represt-nt- 
atives of the doomed parties were excluded from all participation in the trial. The 
conviction is to be followed by the most ignominious punishment ever inflicted on large 
masses of men. It disfranchises them by hundreris of thousands, and degrades them 
all — even those who are admitted to be guiltless — from the rank of freemen to the con- 
dition of slaves. 

The purpose and object of the bill — the general intent which pervades it from be- 
ginning to end — is to change the entire structure and character of the State govern- 
ments, and to compel them by force to the adoption of organic laws and regulations 
which they are unwilling to accept, if left to themselves. The negroes have not asked 
the privilf'ge of voting — the vast majority of them have no idea what it means. This 
bill not only thrusts it into their hands, but compels them, as well as the whites, to 
use it in a particular way. If they do not form a constitution with prescribed articles 
in it, and afterwards electa Legislature which will act upon certain measures in a pre- 
scribed wiLj, neither blacks nor whites can be relieved from the slavery which the bill 
imposes upon them. Without pausing here to onsi^er the policy or impolicy of 
Africanizing the Southern part of our territory, I would simply ar^k the attention of 
Congress to that manifest, well-known, and universally acknowledged rule of consti- 
tutional law, which declares that the Federal Government has no jurisdiction, authority, 
or power to regu.ato such subjects for any State. To force the right of suffrage out of 
the liands of the white people and into the hands of the negroes is an arbitrary viola- 
tion of this principle. 

This bill imposes martial law at once, and its operations will begin so soon as the 
Genera! and his troops can be put in place. The dread alternative between its harsh 
rule and compliance with the terms of this measure is not suspended, nor are the people 
afforded any time for free deliberation. The bill says to them, take martial law first, 
ilien deliberate. And when they have done all that this measure requires them to do, 
other conditions and contingencies, over which they have no control, yet remain to be 
fulfilled before they can be relieved from martial law. Another Congress must first 
approve the constitutions made in conformity with the will of this Congress, and must 
declare these States entitled to representation in both Houses. The whole question 
thus remains open and unsettled, and must again occupy the attention of Congress, 
and in the meantime the agitation which now prevails will continue to disturb all por- 
tions of the people. 

This bill also denies the legality of the Governments of ten of the States which par- 
ticipated in the ratification of the amendment to the Federal Constitution abolishing 
slavery forever within the jurisdiction of the United States, and practically excludes 
them from the Union. If this assumption of the bill be correct, their concurrence cannot 
be considered as having been legally given, and the important fact is made to appear 
that the the consent of three-fourths of the States — the requisite number — has not been 
constitutionally obtained to the ratification of that amendment, thus leaving the ques- 
tion of slavery where it stood before the amendment was officially declared to have be- 
come a part of the Constitution. 

That the measure proposed by this bill does violate the Constitution in the particu- 
lars mentioned, and in many other ways which I forbear to enumerate, is too clear to 
admit of the least doubt. It only remains to consider whether the injunctions of that 
instrument ought to be obeyed or not. I think they ought to be obeyed, for reassns 
which I will proceed to give as briefly as possible. 



47 

In the first place, it is the only system of free government which we can hope to 
have as a nation. When it ceases to be the rule of our conduct, we may perhaps take 
our choice between complete anarchy, a consolidated despotism, and a total dissolution 
of the Union ; but national liberty, regulated by law, will have passed beyond our 
reach. 

It is the best frame of government the world ever saw. No other is or can be so 
well adapted to the genius, habits, or wants of the American people. Combining the 
strength of a great empire with unspeakable blessings of local self-government— having 
a central power to defend the general interests, and recognizing the authority of the 
States as the guardians of industrial rights, it is " the sheet-anchor of our safety 
abroad and our peace at home." It was ordained "to form a more perfect union, es- 
tablish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare, pi.ovide tor 
the common defence, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity." These great ends have been attained heretofore, and will be again, by faith- 
ful obedience to it, but they are certain to be lost if we treat with disregard its sacred 
obligations. 

It was to punish the gross crime of defying the Constitution, and to vindicate its 
STlpreme authority, that we carried on a bloody war of four years' duration Shall we 
now acknowledge that we sacrificed a million (.f lives and expended billions of treasure 
to enforce a Constitution which is not worthy of respect and preservation ? 

Those who advocated the right of secession alleged in their own justification that we 
had no regard for law, and that their rights of property, life, and liberty would not be 
safe under the Constitution, as administered by us. If we now verify their assertion, 
we prove that they were in truth and in fact fighting for their liberty, and instead of 
of brandidg their leaders with the dishonoring name of traitors against a righteous and 
legal Government, we elevate them in history to the rank of self-sacrificing patriots, 
consecrate them to the admiration of the world, and place them by the side of Wash- 
ington, Hampden, and Sydney. No, let us leave them to the infamy they deserve, 
punish them as they should be punished, according to law, and take upon ourselves 
no share of the odium which they should bear alone. 

It is a part of our public history, which can never be forgotten, that both Houses of 
Congress, in July, 18(51, declared, in the form of a solemn resolution, that the war was 
and should be carried on for no purpose of subjugation, but solely to enforce the Con- 
stitution and laws ; and that when this was yielded by the parties in rebellion, the 
contest should cease, with the constitutional rights of the States and of individuals un- 
impaired. 

This resolution was adopted and sent forth to the world unanimously by the Senate, 
and with only two dissenting voices in the House. It was acceptevl by the friends of 
the Union in the South, as well as in the North, as expressing honestly and truly the 
object of the war. On the faith of it, many thousands of persons in both sections gave 
their lives and their fortunes to the cause. To repudiate it now by refusing to the 
States and to the individuals within them the right which the Constitution and laws of 
the Union would secure to them, is a breach of our plighted honor for which I can 
imagine no excuse, and to which I cannot voluntarily become a party. 

The evils which spring from the unsettled State of our Government will be acknowl- 
edged by all. Commercial intercourse is impeded, capital is in constant peril, public 
securities fluctuate in value, peace itself is not secure, and the sense of moral and 
political duty is impaired. To avert these calamities from our country, it is impera- 
tively required that we should immediately decide upon some course of administration 
which can be steadfastly adhered to. I am throughly convinced that any set tl-ment, 
or compromise, or plan of action which is inconsistent with the principles of the Con- 
stitution, will not only be unavailing, but mischevious ; that it will but multiply the 
present evils, instead of removing them. The Constitution, in its whole integrity and 
vigor, throughout the length and breadth of the lard, is the best of all compromises. 
Besides, our'dutv does not, in my judgment, leave us a choi(;e between that and any 
other. I believe that it contains the remedy that is so much needed, and that if the 
co-ordinate branches ef the Government would unite upon its provisions, they would 
be found broad enough and strong enough to sustain in time of peace the nation which 
they bore safely through the ordeal of a protracted civil war. Among the most sacred 
guarantees of that instrument are those which declare that "each State shall have at 
least one Representative," and that "no State, without its consent, shall be deprived 
of its equal suffrage in the Senate." Each House is made the "judge of the elections, 
returns and qualifications of its own members," and may, " with the concurrence of 
two-thirds, expel a member." Thus, as heretofore urged, "in the admission of Sena- 
tors and Representatives from any and all of the States, there can be no just ground ot 



H8 

apprehension that persons who are dishiyal will be clothed with the powers of legisla- 
tion ; for this cduld not happen when the Con^^titution and the law are enforced by a 
vigilant and faithful Congress." " When a Senator or Representative presents his cer- 
tificate or election, he may at once be admitted or rejected; or should there be any 
question as to his eligibility, his credentials may be referred for investigation to the 
appropriate committee. If admitted to a st^at, it must be upon evidence satisfactory to 
the House of which he thus becomes a member that he possesses the requisite constitu- 
tional and legal qualilications. If refused admission as a member for want of due allegi- 
ance to the Government, and return to his constituents, they are admonished that uoue 
but persons loyal the to United States will be allowed to vote in the legislative councils 
of the nation, and the political power and moral influence of Congress are thiis effect- 
ively everted in the interests of loyalty to the Government and fidelity to the Union." 
And is it not far better that the work of restoration should be accomjplished by simple 
compliance with the plain requirements of the Constitution than by a recourse to 
pleasures which in effect destroy the States and threaten the subversion of the General 
Government ? All that is necessary to settle this simple but important qunstion. with- 
out further agitatiou or delay, is a willingness on the part of all to sustain the Consti- 
tution and carry its provisions into practical operation. If to-morrow either brancb of 
Congress would declare that, upon the presentation of their credentials, members consti- 
tutionally elected and loyal to the General Government would be admitted to seats in 
Congress, while all others would be excluded, and their places remain vacant until the 
selection by the people of loyal and qualified persons ; and if, at the same time, assur- 
ance were given that this policy would be continued until all the States were represented 
in Congress, it would send a thrill of joy throughout the entire land, as indicating the 
inauguration o' a system which must speedily bring tranquillity to the public mind. 

Vv'hile we are legislating upon sxabjects which are of great iinportance to the whole 
people, and which must affect all parts of the country, not only during the life of the 
present generation, but for ages to come, we should remember that all men are entitled 
at least to a hearing in the councils which decide upon the destiny of themselves and 
their children. At present ten States are denied representation, and when the Forteith 
Congress assembles on the fourth day of the present month, sixteen States will be 
without a voice in the House of Representatives. This grave fact, with the important 
questions before us, should induce us to pause in a course of legislation which, looking 
solely to the attainment of political ends, fails to consider the rights it transgresses, 
the law which it violates, or the institutions which it imperils. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 

Washington, March 2, 1S67. 



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